CIHM 

ICIMH 

Microfiche 

Collection  de 

Series 

microfiches 

(■Monographs) 

(monographies) 

Canadian  Inatituta  for  Historical  Microraproductions  /  inatitut  Canadian  da  microraproductions  hittoriquas 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


D 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 


□   Covers  damaged  / 
Couverture  endommag^e 

□   Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaur^e  et/ou  pellicul^e 

Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


y_    Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 

□   Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

I      I   Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 


n 

□ 


D 


n 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material  / 
ReliS  avep  d'autres  documents 

Only  editton  available  / 
Seule  Edition  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion  along 
interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serr^e  peut  causer  de 
I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge 
Int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have  been 
omitted  from  filming  /  II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages 
blanches  ajout^es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  lorsque  cela  itait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  kXk  film^es. 

Additional  comments  / 
Commentalres  suppMmentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6td  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-£tre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli* 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modification  dans  la  m^tho- 
de  normale  de  filmage  sont  indk]u6s  ci-dessous. 

I     I  Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

I I  Pages  damaged  /  P^ges  endommag6es 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restaur^es  et/ou  pellicul^es 


0  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
Pages  dteolor^es,  tachet^es  ou  piqu^es 

Pages  detached  /  Pages  d^tach^es 

I  y^  Showthrough/ Transparence 

I     I  Quality  of  print  varies  / 


D 
D 


D 


Quality  indgale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material  / 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata  slips, 
tissues,  etc.,  have  been  ref limed  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  totalement  ou 
partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feulllet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc.,  ont  6td  film^es  &  nouveau  de  fafon  & 
obtenir  la  meitleure  image  possible. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  Image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant  ayant  des 
colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
film^es  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  Image 
possible. 


This  Htm  I*  filmtd  at  Iht  reduction  ratio  chtekad  btlow  / 

C*  docum«rii  •*!  niin4  «u  laux  ri*  riduciien  indi^uo  ci-d«aiaut. 


lOx 

14x 

18x 

22x 

2tx 

30x 

y 

12x 


16x 


20x 


24x 


28x 


32x 


Th«  copy  filmtd  hara  hu  baan  raproducad  thanks 
to  tha  o*n«'0*<^  of: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'axampiaira  film*  fut  raproduit  grica  A  la 
gintrosit*  da: 

Bibliotheque  nationals  du  Canada 


Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
possibia  considaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  Icaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacifications. 


Las  imagas  suivantas  ont  iti  raproduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin.  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nanat*  da  I'axamplaira  filmi,  at  an 
conformity  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
fiimaga. 


Original  copiaa  in  printad  papar  covara  ara  fiimad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  iliuatratad  impraa- 
sion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  fiimad  baginning  on  tha 
firat  paga  with  a  printad  or  iliuatratad  impraa- 
aion,  artd  anding  on  tha  last  paga  with  a  printad 
or  iliuatratad  imprasaion. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  ^»  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  ▼  (moaning  "END"), 
whiehavar  applias. 


Las  axamplairaa  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  aat  imprimte  sont  filmis  an  commandant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  las  autras  axamplairas 
originaux  sont  filmis  an  commanpant  par  la 
pramiAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraasion  ou  d'illustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  taila 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  symbolos  suivants  spparaftra  sur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  salon  la 
cas:  la  symbols  — »  signifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
symbols  ▼  signifia  "FIN". 


Maps,  platas,  charts,  ate.  may  ba  fiimad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraiy  included  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  fiimad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar,  iaft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  framas  as 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrams  illustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Las  cartaa.  planchas.  tabiaaux,  ate.  pauvant  itra 
filmta  A  daa  taux  da  reduction  diffirants. 
Lorsqua  la  document  ast  trap  grsnd  pour  ttra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clichA.  il  ast  film*  A  partir 
da  I'angia  sup^riaur  gaucha.  da  gaucha  i  droita, 
at  da  haut  an  bas.  an  pranant  ia  nombra 
d'imagaa  nAcassaira.  Lm  diagrammas  suivants 
illustrant  la  mAthoda. 


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(ANSI  ond  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


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Ro<:h«tUr.    N«»   York         U609       JSA 

(716)  482  -  0300  -  Phon. 

(716)  288-  5989  -  rai 


1 1 


THE    INDUSTRIAL    HISTORY 

OF  THE 

UNITED   STATES 


I 


•Tls^><^o 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANaSCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Lwitbd 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNB 

rHE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lra 

TORONTO 


The  Industrial  History 


OF  THE 


United  States 


NEW  AND    REVISED   EDITION 


BY 


KATHARINE  COMAN,  Ph.B. 

PROFESSOR    OF    ECONOMICS    AM.     SOC.OUKJY    ,N 
WELLESLEY  COLLEGE 


1 


I 


Weto  gotfe 

THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1910 

AU  rights  rturvtd 


138086 


H  G  i  0=j 


Copyright,  i^s,  1910, 
Bv  THE  MACMILIAN  COMPANY. 


Set  Ue    -id  electrotyped.     Published  September,  1905.     Reprinted 
February,  iuo6;    September,  1907;  August.  1908;    September,  1909. 
New  and  revised  edition  September,  1910. 


KoriDOOB  |lrm 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.B.A. 


v 


m 


PREFACE 


The  history  of  the  United  States,  more  than  that  of 
any  Old  World  country,  is  the  record  of  physical  achieve- 
ment.    The  exploitation  of  virgin  territory  by  a  race  of 
extraordinary  intelligence,   resource,  and   energy   is  the 
essential  theme  of  our  national  history.     Political  events 
and  social  changes  are  conditioned  on  industrial  evolu- 
tion, ant.  the  story  of  America  can  be  comprehended  only 
in  the  light  of  her  material  aspirations  anH  attainments. 
The  advance  of  agriculture  from  the  pioneer  farm  to  the 
bonanza  ranch,  the  expansion  of  manufactures  consequent 
\,i        on  the  substitution  of  machinery  and  factory  organization 
1        for  the  domestic  handicrafts,  the  service  rendered  to  com- 
1        merce  by  steam,  the  telegraph,  electricity,  —  these  are  the 
j         really  potent  factors  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 
I         The  transformation  of  industrial  organization  from  inden- 
f      ,  tured  service  to  the  trade  union,  from  the  self-employed 
artisan  to  the  trust,  from  wild-cat  banking  to  the  national 
bank  system,  has   more   significance   than   the   ups  and 
I        downs  of  parties  or  the  result  of  a  presidential  election. 
I  Political  revolutions  and  military  undertakings  cannot 

I  be  Ignored  by  the  student  of  economic  history.  War  must 
be  treated  not  as  picturesque  by-play  merely,  but  as  a 
disastrous  interruption  of  industrial  progress.  The  financ- 
ing of  a  war  often  introduces  a  disturbing  factor  into  the 
currency  system,  emergency  taxes  retard  or  promote  busi- 
ness interests  and  furnish  opportunity  for  special  legisla- 
tion the  enlistment  and  disbanding  of  an  army  involve 
sudden  alterations  in  the  labor  supply,  while  army  life  has 
a  demoralizing  influence  on  business  habits.  Social  in- 
stitutions  and   their  slow  transformations  offer  a   most 


VI 


Preface 


interesting  accompaniment  to  the  study  of  economic  evo- 
lution, but  they  may  fairly  be  considc-ed  as  effect  rather 
than  cause  of  economic  tendencies. 

The  record  of  industrial  progress  may  be  rendered  no 
less  intelligible  and  interesting  to  the  average  student 
than  the  development  of  political  forms.    Business  methods 
are  more  familiar  than  military  tactics,  and  a  mechanical 
invention  is  more  readily  comprehended  than  a  constitu- 
tional revision.     Elaborate  treatises  have  been  written  on 
various  phases  of  our  economic  history.     It  is  the  aim 
of  this  book  to  bring  the  essential  elements  of  that  history 
within  the  grasp  of  the  average  reader.    The  complicated 
story  has   been  told  in  the  briefest  possible  fashion,  but 
marginal  references  will  enable   the  student  to  go  into 
detail  as  iully  as  may  be  desired.     Contemporary  prob- 
lems are  treated  in  mere  outline.      The  data  essential 
to  the  study  of  each  have  ueen  set  forth  with  no  expres- 
sion of  opinion,  the  best  authorities,  pro  and  con,  being 
noted  in  the  margin.     A  final  chapter  on  the  conservation 
of  our  national  resources  has  been  added  to  this  edition 
in  the  hope  of  making  evident  the  transcendent  importance 
of  the  interests  involved.     Here,  again,  so  brief  a  treat- 
ment can  do  hardly  more  than  suggest  salient  facts,  leav- 
ing the  student  to  follow  the  line  of  his  special  concern. 
For  the  assistance   of  teachers,  suggestions  for  supple- 
mentary reading  and  for  class  discussion  are  given  in  an 
appendix. 


M 


%J 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

PACE 

r//E  LAND  AND   THE  PEOPLE 1-21 

The  Discovery  of  the  New  World:  the  Eastward  Route; 
the  Westward  Route  ;  Industrial  Resources  of  America;  the 
Territory  of  the  United  States I 

The  Peopling  of  North  America:  The  Aborigines ;  Spain; 
France  ;  Great  Britain  ;  Holland ;  the  Final  Victory  of  the 
English -J 

CHAPTER   H 

THE  BUSINESS  ASPECTS  OF  COLONIZATION        22-47 

The  FlNANaNC  of  the  Coloniks:  the  Chartered  Companies; 

Associations  of  Adventurers ;   Proprietary  Grants  ,  23 

Land  Tenure j2 

The  Colonists jg 

The  Labor  Supply:   Indentured  Servants ;   African  Slaves  41 

The  ScARcrrv  or  Munf.v ^6 

CHAPTER   HI 

INDUSTRIAL    DEVELOPMl-XT     UN  DEN    BRITISH 

CONTROL 48^8 

Agriculture:  the  New  England  Ojlonies;  New  Vi.rk  ;  thi- 
Middle  Colonies  ;  the  Southern  (  olonies  ;  Fostering  I  .  gi»- 
'*t»on 48 

Manufactirm:  (loth  Manufacture:  Ke.trictive  Legislation; 
Uather  Mai.ufatturrx ;  |r"n  Manufactures;  Kcstriaive 
Legislation x. 

vii 


vm 


Contents 


Commerce:  Wagon  Roads;  the  Coastwise  Trade;  the  West 
India  Trade  ;  the  Slave  Trade ;  the  Transatlantic  Trade  ; 
Restrictive  Legislation ;  the  Navigation  Acts ;  Colonial 
Shipping ;  the  Enumerated  Articles  ;  Smuggling ;  the  Mo- 
lasses Act 73 

Credit  Money 85 

CHAPTER  IV 

INDUSTRIAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION    89-131 

Causes  :  the  Imperial  Regime ;  the  Sugar  Act ;  the  Stamp  Act ; 
Nonintercourse ;  the  Repeal ;  Attempt  to  vindicate  Impe- 
rial Authority ;  Renewal  of  Nonintercourse  ;  the  Tea  Tax  ; 
the  Boycott  Complete  ;   Declaration  of  Independence  .        .      89 

Industrial  Consequences  :  National  Bankruptcy ;  Commercial 
Gains  and  Losses ;  Development  of  Manufactures;  the  Farm- 
er's Opportunity ;   the  Antislavery  Movement        .         .         .     106 

The  Conquest  of  the  Ohio  Valley:  The  Backwoods  Settle- 
ments; Indian  Wars;  Peace  and  Prosperity         .         .        -133 


CHAPTER  V 

NATIONAL  BEGINNINGS «3*-i74 

Formative  Legislation  :  The  Federal  Constitution ;  Legisla- 
tion in  Behalf  of  Shipping  ;  Commercial  Treaiies ;  Legisla- 
tion in  Behalf  of  Manufactures;  Hamilton's  Report  on 
Manufactures;  the  Patent  Law  ;  Regulation  of  the  Currency     132 

The  Westward  Movement:  the  Ordinance  of  1787 ;  South  of 
the  Ohio  ;  the  Sale  of  Public  I  Ands  ;  Need  of  Transportation 
Facilities;  the  Cumberland  Road;  Gallatin's  Plan;  the 
Louisiana  Purchase 156 

CHAPTER  VI 

INDUSTRIAL    CONSEQUENCES   OF   THE   WAR    OF 

iSia 175-206 

Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Neutral  Trade:  American 
Grievances  ;  th-'  War ;  the  Keeiprocity  Treaties  ;  the  Fish- 
eries      >7S 


Contents 


IX 


a». 


PACE 

Development  of  Manufactures  :  Cotton ;  Woolen  ;  Iron ; 
the  Effects  of  Peace  ;  the  Tariff  Act  of  1816  ;  Clash  of  Sec- 
tional Interests  ;   the  Tariff  Acts  of  1824,  1828,  1832,  1833  .     184 

Financial  Difficulties:  the  Second  National  Bank ;  the  Crisis 

ofi8i9 198 

Land  Speculation  :  The  Emigrants 203 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE    EPOCH    OF   EXPANSION   AXD    THE    CRISIS 

OF  1837 207-231 

Speculative  Investment:  Manufactures;  Agriculture;  Cot- 
ton and  Slavery;  Free  Labor  and  Enterprise;  Internal 
Commerce 207 

Internal  Improvements:  Canals;  Railroads;  Commercial 
Development;  the  Coastwise  Trade;  Commerce  on  the 
Great  Lai<es 2jg 

Commercial  Development 22^ 

Speculation  and  the  Crisis  :   Failure  to  recharter  the  National 

Bank;  Debasement  of  the  Coinage  ;  Crisis  of  1837  .     227 

CHAPTER  VIH 

TERRITORIAL    EXPANSION  AND    THE  REVENUE 

^•^^^^^■•^ 232-268 

Growth  in  Wealth  and  Population 2„ 

Industrial    Backwardness    of   the   South  :     Agriculture  ; 

Manufactures;    Railroads;   Commerce  .         .        .        '.     236 

Territorial  Expansion:  Texas;  California;  Utah;  Oregon.  243 
Through  Routes  to  the  West:    Financing  „f  the   Roads; 

tlcctnc  Telegraph ;   Express  Companies  .        .         .348 

Influence  of  Revenue  Tariffs:    Walker  Tariff;    Tariff  of 

A     •  '  /"^"'  Industries  come  of  Age  ;   Notable  Inventions; 
Agricultural  Machinery 

' 254 

Development  of  Commerce:  Ship.h„ilding  ;  Subsidy  Policy  .  262 
The  Panic  or  1857   . 

•       «  266 


Contents 


CHAPTER  IX 

rAGi 
•i.'ff   CIVIL    WAR;    ECONOMIC  CAUSES  AND  RE- 
SULTS          269-312 

Slavery  versus  Free  Labor  :  Trend  of  Southern  Opinion ; 
Proslavery  Movement ;  Trend  of  Opinion  in  the  North  ;  the 
Humanitarian  Movement ;  Organization  of  I^bor ;  Sociahst 
Enthusiasm  ;  Slavery  and  the  Territories ;  the  Republican 
Party 269 

Cost  of  the  War  :  Confederate  Finances ;  Federal  Finances  .     279 

Industrial  Transformation  :  Redemption  of  the  Greenbacks; 
Revival  of  Protective  Tariffs  ;  Material  Prosperity  ;  Decline 
of  our  Merchant  Marine ;  Homestead  Act  ;  Transconti- 
nental Railways  ;  Crisis  of  1873  ;  Ijibor  Movement ;  Farm- 
ers' Movement 285 

Industrial    Transformation    of    the    Soitth:   the  Labor 

Problem 307 

CHAPTER  X 

CONTEMPORARY  PROBLEMS 313-374 

The  Protective  Policy:  Crisis  of  1884  ;  McKinleyAct;  Wil- 
son-Gorman Act ;  Dingley  Act :  Payne-Aldrich  Act    .        .     313 

Expansion    of   Commerce:    Decline   of  Shipping;    Subsidy 

Policy ;  International  Mercantile  Marine  Company      .  327 

Currency  Problems  :  Demonetization  of  Silver ;  the  Gold 
Standard  ;  Financial  Crisis  of  1893  >  Revision  of  the  Na- 
tional Bank  System ;  Crisii  of  1907  ;   Reform  ^opositiont  .     335 

Governmental  C*jntrol  of  Railroads:  Railway  Combina- 
tions ;  Rate  Regulation 347 

Business  Monopolies:  Anti-trust  Legislation    ....    354 

The  Organization  of  Labor  :  Knights  of  Labor ;  American 
Federation  of  Labor  ;  Strike  Statistics  ;  Criticism  of  Trade 
Union  Methods  ;   Kmployers'  Associations    ....     361 

Immigration:  Restrictive  Legislation 368 


Contents 


XI 


CONSERVATION 


CHAPTER  XI 

rACB 

375-413 

Exploitation  of  Natural  Resources:  Destruction  of  Game 
and  Fur-bearing  Animals  ;  Exhaustion  of  Forests ;  Deple- 
tion of  Pasturage  ;  Exhaustion  of  the  Soil ;  Exhaustion  of 
Mineral  Resources  ;  Waste  of  Human  Life  ;  Utilization  of 
Wastes  in  Manufacture  •         ■         .         . 


Bureau  of  Mines;    Pure  Food  anl 


375 


Preventive  Legislation 

DnigLaw ^ 

Reclamation:  Inland  Waterways  Movement;  Achievements 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  ;  the  Forestry  Service  ; 
Reclamation  of  Agricultural  Land  ;  Irrigation  of  Arid  Lands; 
Drainage  of  Swamp  Lands  ;  Dry  Farming  .  -393 

The  Conservation  Movement:  Conservation  of  Water  Power; 

Conservation  Challenged -p- 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


Physiographic  Map  of  the  United  States.    Tarr  and  McMurry, 

Complete  Geography Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Old  and  New  Trade  Routes  to  the  Orient 3 

Routes  of  the  Explorers To  face        8 

French  Settlements  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.     Adapted  from 

Semple,  American  History n 

European  Claims  in  North  America i  ^ 

The  Original  Grants To  face       28 

Map  of  the  Dedham  Divident.     Records  of  the  Dedham  Histoii- 

cal  Society ^ 

'"'  Fishing  Banks  off  the  North  Atlantic  Coast.     Massa(.husetts  State 

Kt  Census,  1885 ,2 

^  Jamestown  in  1622.  Tyler,  Cradle  of  the  Republic  •  .  .  55 
l^i;,  Tobacco  Culture.  The  Southern  Workman  .  .  To  face  56 
^      Rice  Culture  in  South  Carolina.     Photographs  furnished  by  Reid 

Whitford,Esq To  face       do 

I  Balance  of  Trade  between  the  American  Colonics  and  Great 

Britain,  1 697-1 775.     Based  on  Hazard's  Statistical  Table     .       64 

Colonial  Roads _. 

Colonial  Exports,  Annual  Average,  1 763-1 773.     Based  on  Statis- 
tics in  American  Husbandry 80 

Populationof  the  Colonies,  1754  and  1775 go 

Distribution  of  English  Population  in  America,  1774.     Adapted 

from  Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West 91 

Trade  between  the  American  Colonies  and  Great  Britain,  1764- 

1776.     Based  on  Hazard's  Statistical  Tallies          .         .         .101 
Continental  Currency,  Emissions  and   Depreciation.     Based  on 
Schucker,  Revolutionary  Finances,   and  Webster,  Political 
Kssays ^^^ 

Spinning  Wheels  still  in  Use  in  the  Kentucky  Mountains  To  face  1 1 7 
Bryant's  Station.     Plan  drawn  by  George  Rogers  Clark.     Repro- 

dutlion  furnished  by  Colonel  R.  T.  Durrett  .       To  face     126 

Actual  Occupation  and  Treaty  Boundaries,  1783.     Adapted  from 

Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West ,20 

xiii 


I    3 


xiv  List  of  Illustrations 

rAGB 

Grinding  Corn  with  Sweep  Mill  in  the    Kentucky  Mountains 

To  face     130 
Distribution  of  Population  in  1790.     Statistical  Atlas.     United 

States  Census,  1900 '3^ 

Early  Steamboats.     Fitch's  Models.     United  States  Census,  1880     149 
Cleaning  Cotton  with  Roller  Gin,  still  in  Use  in  the  Kentucky 

Mountains To  fact     150 

Whitney's  Cotton  Gin,     Hale,  Memories  of  a  Hundred  Years     .     151 
Stocking  Loom  still   in  Use   in    Highlandville,   Massachusetts 

To  face     152 
Spinning  Room  in  Slater's  Mill.      White,   Memoir  of  Samuel 

Slater 'S3 

Sute  Claims  to  Western  Lands '59 

Map  of  the  Ohio  Lands.     Western  Reserve  Tracts  .         .161 

Roads  and  Trails  into  the  West.      Imlay,  Description   of  the 

Western  Territory '^3 

An  Ohio  River  Flat  Boat.     Hart,  Source  Readers  of  American 

History ^"/"^     '6^ 

Explorations  in  the  Louisiana  Territory 173 

Primitive  Lumbering To  face     178 

Georgia  Sugar  Mill.     Photographs  by  David  S.  Wood       To  face     194 
Breaking  Flax  in  the  Kentucky  Mountains  .  .      To  face     196 

Distribution  of  Population  in  1830.     Statistical  Atlas.     United 

States  Census,  1900 204 

The  Cotton    Kingdom  and   its    Dependencies.     Olmsted,   The 

Cotton  Kingdom 7  0  face    210 

Travelling  by  Packet  Boat,  Erie  Canal.     Original  Copyrighted  by 

A.B.Yates "^^  face     217 

Alleghany  Portage  Railway.     Original  furnished  by  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad To  face     21% 

Early  Post  Roads  and  Canals.     Based  on  Tanner,  Internal  Im- 
provements    *'" 

Early  Canals  still  in  Use To  face     222 

Early  Railroad  Trains.     Brown,  History  of  the  Locomotive         .     224 
Railroad  Constvuction,  1830-1860.      The  Fastern  and  Southern 

States Toface    2r^ 

Cotton  Farmers,  Calhoun,  Alabama.     Photographs  furnished  by 

Charlotte  R.  Thome To  face     238 

Cotton  C.in  and  Warehouse,  Mobile.     Photograph  furnished  by 

H.W.  Farnum To  face     238 

Cotton  Traffic  at  Mobile To  face     242 


List  of  Illustrations 


XV 


PAGl< 
246 


250 

262 
268 


Trails  into  the  Far  West.     Adapted  from  Inman's  Maps    To  face 

Railroad    Construction,    1830-1860.      The    Mississippi    Valley 

To  face 

Exports,  Imports,  and  Tonnage,  1789-1860 

Evolution  of  the  Reaper.  Photographs  furnished  by  the  Inter- 
national Harvester  Company  ....       To  face 

An  Old  Time  Clipper.     Hart,  Source  Readers      .... 

Distribution  of  Population  in  i860.      Statistical  Atlas.     United 

States  Census,  1900 2S1 

Relation  of  Imports,  Sales  of  Public  Lands,  and  Railroad  Con- 
struction to  Financial  Crises ^02 

Hauling    Fertilizer    on    to    Dead    Lands,    Calhoun,    Alabama 

To  face 

Threshing  Wheat  with  Traction  Engine,  North  Dakota.  Photo- 
graphs furnished  by  the  International  Harvester  Company 

To  face 
The  Fall  Line ^,, 

Sugar  Plantation  in  the  Hawiian  Islands.     Japanese  laborers. 
Photographs  furnished  by  Professor  Henshaw       .       To  face 
Wayside  Forge— Coke  Ovens,  Alabama      .  .       To f ice 

Exports,  Imports,  and  Tonnage,  1860-1908  .... 

Pine   Apple    Plantation.     Photographs    furnished   by   Hawaiian 

Pineapple  Company To  face 

Ratio  of  Silver  to  Gold,  1780-1909 

Modern  Machinery  in  the  Corn  Belt.     Photographs  furnished  by 

the  International  Harvester  Company  .         .         .       To  face 

Principal  Railroad  Combinations,  1909        .         .         .       To  face 

Wages  and  Prices  prevailing  in  the  United  States,  1890-1909      , 

Slavic  Immigrants To  face 

Rice  Fields  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.     Chinese  Laborers.     Pho- 
tographs furnished  by  Professor  Henshaw     .         .       To  face 
Logging  in  the  Cascades.     Photographs  furnished  by  Wameck 

To  face 
The    Wastes   of    the    Lumberman.     Photographs    furnished   by 

Forestry  Service To  face 

The  Wastes  of  the   Mill.  Erosion  of  Iowa  Farm  Land  worth 
$150  per  acre.   Photographs    furnished    by    Forestry   Ser- 

^'•<=« Toface 

Distrihution  of  Coal  Fields  in  the  UniteH  States  .         .       To  face 
Anthracite    Coal    Miners.      Photographs    furnished    by   C.    (). 

Thurston -p^  j^^^     ^g^ 


310 


310 


318 
322 
329 

330 
338 

340 

350 

368 

370 
372 
378 
380 

384 
3S5 


".1 


XVI 


List  of  Illustrations 


Mineral  Resources  of  Alaska.     U.  S.  Geological  Survey    To  face 

Navigable  Waterways.  Report  Inland  Waterway  Ck)mniission, 
1908 Toface 

The  National  Forests.  Photographs  furnished  by  Forestry  Ser- 
vice        Toface 

The  Truckee-Carson  Project.  Photographs  furnished  by  Recla- 
mation Service Toface 

Irrigation  of  Western  Lands "^o  Z''^' 


PAGE 

388 

394 
398 

402 
404 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    HISTORY 

OF  THE 

UNITED   STATES 


Kt 


I 


INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE 
UNITED   STATES 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE 
The  Discovery  of  the  New  World 

The  explorers  of  the  sixteenth  century  opened  a  new 
world  to  the  industrial  enterprise  of  Europe.    Ancient 
civilization  had  centered  in  the  Orient.    Political  power 
and  commercial  influence  had  rested  in  turn  with  Egypt, 
China,  India,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome.    The  trade  of 
mediaeval  Europe  had  been  with  the  Levant.     Even  the 
Venetian  fleet,  though  it  sailed  once  a  year  to  London  and 
the  Baltic  ports,  never  ventured  out  into  the  Atlantic. 
The  westernmost  capes  were   called   Finisterre,  Land's 
End,  Ultima  Thule,  while  the  great  ocean  beyond  was 
known  as  the  Sea  of  Darkness.     Nameless  terrors  haunted 
its  stormy  waters,  and  merchantmen  hardly  ventured  out 
of  sight  of  the  familiar  headlands.    After  the  adoption  of 
the  mariner's  compass  the  Western  Islands  had  been  re- 
discovered, and  Genoese  pilots  in  the  employ  of  Portugal  cheyney, 
had  braved  the  thousand  miles  of  stormy  sea  that  lay  be-  European 
tween  Lisbon  and  the  Azores,  but  no  n   n  dared  go  farther  ^.^f  sro^nd 
west  or  south.    Only  when  the  Turki^n  conquest  of  Con-  HistJ^?''" 
stantmople  and  the  eastern  Mediterranean  gave  the  cus-  Ch.  ii. 
tomary  trade  routes  into  the  keeping  of  a  hostile  power, 
did  men  seek  to  traverse  the  Atlantic.     Monarchs,  such  as 
John  II  of  Portugal,  Isabella  of  Castile,  Henry  VII  of  Eng- 
land, sought  not  a  new  continent,  but  a  new  trade  route  to 
the  Orient  —  to  India,  China,  and  the  Spice  Islands. 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Bourne, 
Essays  in 
Hist. 

Criticism, 
173-189. 

Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
America, 
I.  Ch.  IV. 


Yeats, 

The  Growth 
and  Vicissi- 
tudes of 
Commerce, 
Pt.lI,Ch.IV. 


Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
America, 

I,  Ch.  V,  VI 

II,  Ch.  VII. 

Yeats, 

Pt.  II,  Ch.  V 


Bourne, 
Essays  in 
Hist. 

Criticism, 
193-217. 


The  Eastward  Route.  —  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  the 
Navigator,  first  undertook  to  find  an  "  outside  "  route  to 
India,  and  many  expeditions  were  sent  from  Lisbon  under 
the  auspices  of  the  astronomer  prince.  They  sailed  to 
southward  and  came  upon  Porto  Santo  and  Madeira,  the 
Canaries  and  Cape  Verde  Islands.  Creeping  along  the 
coast,  the  timorous  navigators  rounded  Cape  Verde  and 
crossed  the  dreaded  Equator.  Finally,  in  1487,  Bartholo- 
mew Diaz  circumnavigated  Africa  as  far  as  the  Great  Fish 
River.  A  mutiny  among  his  sailors  forced  Diaz  to  return 
without  traversing  the  eastern  ocean;  but  ten  years  later 
Vasco  da  Gama  sailed  on  to  India.  The  conquest  of  the 
important  trading  ports  followed,  and  a  Portuguese  empire 
was  established  in  the  coveted  Spice  Islands.  Bartholo- 
mew Columbus,  a  younger  brother  of  Christopher,  accom- 
panied Diaz,  and  it  is  thought  that  he  suggested  to  the 
discoverer  of  America  the  possibility  that  a  shorter  route  to 
the  Orient  might  be  found  by  sailing  directly  west.  Certain 
it  is  that  Bartholomew  submitted  this  plan  to  Henry  VII 
in  the  year  succeeding  his  momentous  voyage. 

The  Westward  Route.  —  When  Christopher  Columbus 
hit  upon  the  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  he  thought  that 
they  must  be  on  the  east  coast  of  Asia.  In  1503,  Americus 
Vespurius  sailed  from  the  Spanish  Main  to  the  thirty-fifth 
parallel,  south  latitude.  Finding  no  passage  to  the  west- 
ward, he  became  convinced  that  this  was  not  Asia  nor  the 
Spice  Islands,  but  a  new  worid. 

Before  this  disco\ery.  Pope  Alexander  VI  had  declared 
a  division  of  the  newly  discovered  lands  between  the 
exi)loring  monarchs  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  All  the  islands 
lying  west  of  a  meridian  drawn  three  hundred  and  seventy 
leagues  west  of  the  .\zores  were  assigned  to  Spain;  realms 
discovered  to  the  eastward  were  to  belong  to  her  zealous 
rival.  Ferdinand  Magellan,  a  Portuguese  navigator  sailing 
under  the  auspices  of  Charies  V,  set  forth  to  circumnavi- 
gate South  \rr.enra  and  {M-nctrate  the  unknown  sea  be- 
yond, hoping  to  open  a  route  to  the  Indies  in  the  region  that 
belonged  to  h' ,  master.    With  heroic  fortitude  he  and  his 


The  Land  and  the  People 


Sample, 
American 
History  and 
its  Geo- 
graphic Con 
ditions, 
Ch.I. 


,         Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

threaded  the  ^^^^ings  of  the  to^tuo^      ^.^^^  ^^  ^ 
by  his  name,  crossed  the  ten  thousa  ^^^  ^^^.^.^ 

p'acific,  and  finally  --^f ,  ^^.^^Tt^^  king  of  Cebu, 
pines.  Magellan  came  [o^^^^'J^^^^^teed  ^^  ^^^^  ^he 
;-ho  accepted  Christ  ani^^^^^^^^^^  .^^^^^^^  ,„d  thus 

exclusive  privilege  of  trading  w  ^^.^  ^^^^^ 

was  founded  a  Spanish  empire  ^   »^J^^  ^^  long  and 

em  route  to  the  Spice  ^f^lfH^^  ""^^^    .^Wh  for  a  more 

difficult  to  serve  the  -eeds  o^  's^f^^s  then  undertaken,  and 
direct  passage  to  the  South  Sea  wa  ^^^  ^^rX^v^^^t 

continued  for  three  ^^"turies    iNot  ^^  ^ 

Passage  was  finally  P-^^^^^T^^^^^^  to  the  Indies 
abandon  the  search     The  westwa  ^^  ^^^  ^^^^_ 

was  never  found,  but  the  exp^^^s^  ^.^^^  continent  to 
ished  gaze  of  Europe  a  "^v^  ^^^'^'^j^^  imaginations  of  men 
conquer,  to  colonize,  to  ^^P^^^t    /The  im  g  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^_ 

were  fired  by  the  -"^-Xf -^^^7:1"  and  fortune,  to 

turous  spirits  gav;e  them^^  ;^^;.^^^^         ^         ^^  g^^ope 
the  prosecution  of  great  aierpn^^^^^^^^  J  ^^^^^^  ^^ 

finally  abandoned  the  Oriental   \  .-ere  sought 

t;;e  Occident.    Thereafter  nche^^^^^^^^^  ,j 

in  the  Americas,  and  the  Atlant  c  ^^^^^^^   ^^^^^^^ 

trade.    Modern  ^^^^'^"^^^^""rthe  nations  that  possess 
and  the  balance  of  power  rests  witn  m 
ports  on  the  Atlantic.  wnerfca.-Only    now,  after 

fadustrial  Resources  of  Z^'^^'-        ^^e  resources  of 
four  hundred  years  of  ^''P^^^^/^^Xs^i  p^oport 
Ihe  New  World  fully  knovvn.    l^^^^^^t  sL.  twice  the 
been  gradually  revealed,  and  a^econ  ^^  .^^  ^^^^^^^^ 

width  of  the  Atlantic,  has  iK^n   t  P  ^^^  ^^  ^^^. 

reach.     Balboa  did,  md  ed   sigh    tj^  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^,,. 

n^ounted  the  land  l-^'-",^;.^^^";'; '„  ,V  isthmus  but  thirty 

ern  and  western  ^h-res^^.^^^^^^^tb  of  this  connecting  strip 
n,ile,  ,.rross.    To  north  anO  sou       ^^  ^^^  ^^^  Amencas. 

of  land  stretch  great  ^^^ThVricher  in  natural  resources 
thenonhernhaM-.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Uhas  the  advan- 
and  the  more  available  lor  v. 


rfT 


The  Land  and  the  People 


5 


tage  of  belonging  to  the  land  hemisphere  of  the  globe. 
North  America  is  one  of  a  ring  of  continents  gathered  about 
the  North  Pole.    Its  Arctic  coast  line  stretches  over  a  span 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  degrees,  and  only  a  narrow 
strait  divides  Alaska  from  Siberia,  while  Labrador  lies  but 
two  thousand  miles  west  of  Ireland.     Should  a  New  York 
steamer  take  the   northernmost  route,   rounding   Nova 
Scotia,  passing  through  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  arid  the 
Straits  of  Belle  Me,  touching  at  Greenland,  Iceland,  and 
the  Shetland  Islands,  she  need  i  .  ver  be  more  than  twelve 
hours  out  of  sight  of  land.     This  is  the  shortest  course 
from  America  to  Europe,  but  it  is  not  used  by  trading 
vessels  because  icebergs  and  head  winds  render  it  unsafe, 
and  because  these  subarctic  lands  offer  little  traffic.     It  is 
however,  the  path  followed  by  the  first  discoverers  of 
America.    Vikin      from  Norway  established  a  colony  m 
Iceland  in  tht      .ith  century  and  in  Greenland  in  the 
tenth     Leif  Erickson  maae  his  way  down  the  bleak  coasts 
of  Labrador  to  Nova  Scotia,  possibly  to  New  England,  m 
the  year  looo  a.d.     So  inhospitable  were  these  countries 
that  the  Norse  adventurers  abandoned  their  westward 
quest  and  bent  their  long  keels  to  the  south,  to  the  booty- 
.tocked  cities  of  Normandj .  France,  and  the  Mediterranean. 
Along  the  fortieth  parallel  the  AtlanUc  measures  three 
thousand  miles  from  shore  to  shore ;  but,  in  spite  of  its 
ureatcr  length,  this  has  become  the  highway  of  commerce. 
Here   in  a  latitude  where  ice  offers  no  obstacle  to  na\a- 
^ation,  lie  the  best  harbors  of  the  American  coast,  those 
of  Portland.  Boston,  and  New  York.     Here,  too,    great 
estuaries,  Long  Island  Sound,   Delaware  Bay,  and  the 
(^hesupeake,  enable  the  largest  vessels  to  sail  far  inland ; 
and  here  deep  rivers,  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware,  supple- 
ment  ocean   traffic.     This,   moreover,   is   just   the   most 
productive  portion  of  America.     In  the  huge  bend  of  the 
coast  between  Cape  Cod  and  Cape  Hattcras,  soil  and 
climate  and  mineral  resources  combine  to  create  the  richest 
iiimnanJ  of  the  New  Work!.     More  important  ovrn  than 
this  physical   endowment  is  the  trade  wafted  to  these 


t !                    Farrand, 

n                    Basis  of 

;                      American 

!                     History, 

1            Ch.  I. 

6         Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

shores.  North  America  stands  over  against  the  com- 
mercial nations  of  Europe  and  thus  has  direct  entry  to  the 
best  markets  of  the  Old  World. 

The  southern  continent  juts  out  into  the  Atlantic 
farther  than  the  northern.  Cape  St.  Roque  is  but  one 
thousand  miles  west  of  Cape  Verde.  Her  rivers  and 
harbors  are  no  less  serviceable,  but  South  America  has  the 
misfortune  to  face  the  Dark  Continent  —  the  uncivilized 
African  coast.  Both  North  and  South  America  are  walled 
off  from  the  Pacific.  A  lofty  mountain  range  runs  the 
length  of  the  western  coast  from  Alaska  to  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  unbroken  save  at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
Even  in  Pacific  trade  Iuj  northern  continent  has  the  ad- 
vantage, since  it  extends  forty-five  degrees  farther  west  in 
the  fortieth  latitude,  the  latitude  of  commerce.  From  San 
Francisco  to  Yokohama  is  but  forty-si.x  hundred  miles, 
while  from  Callao  to  the  Oriental  ports  is  a  voyage  of 
eleven  thousand  miles.  North  America  fronts  the  com- 
merci:  .1  opportunities  of  Asia,  while  South  America  stands 
vis-^-vh  to  a  submerged  continent. 

The  Territory  of  the  United  States  occupies  precisely  the 
most  favored  portion  of  this  favored  continent.  We  com- 
mand the  best  harbors  of  the  Pacific  as  well  as  of  the 
Atlantic  coast.  On  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  navigable  rivers 
and  excellent  harbors  further  our  commerce  with  subtropic 
lands.  The  Great  Lakes  we  share  with  Canada,  but  their 
terminal  harbors,  those  of  Duluth,  Chicago,  and  Buffalo, 
happen  to  be  within  our  boundaries.  Taken  in  connection 
with  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi  rivers,  this  chain 
of  seas  makes  up  a  system  of  ir'.and  navigation  unrivaled 
in  the  world.  From  the  Strait  of  Belle  Isle  to  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior  itretches  a  water  highway  twenty-four 
hundred  miles  in  length  and  so  direct  that  the  Norsemen 
found  their  way  to  the  Dakotas.  The  headwaters  of 
navigation  on  the  Mississippi  may  be  reached  by  short 
portages  from  the  Great  Lakes.  The  father  of  waters 
flows  througli  a  vast  valley,  unsun)assed  for  productive 
capacity,  to  a  sea  circumscribed  by  tropic  islands.    A  most 


The  Land  and  the  People  7 

promising  opening  for  reciprocal  trade  is  thus  aflforded. 
The  area  of  the  United  States  comprises  every  variety  of 
soil,  climate,  and  humidity  known  to  the  temperate  zone, 
while  the  variations  of  altitude  admit  of  great  diversity 
of  agricultural  products.  Its  mountain  ranges  contain 
rich  veins  of  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  iron,  and  its  coal 
deposits  are  the  bei^t  in  existence  and  of  vast  extent. 
Little  of  the  latent  possibilities  of  this  land  was  revealed  to 
the  first  explorers.  Its  industrial  resources  were  dimly 
guessed  by  the  navigators  who  skirted  its  coasts  and  sent 
back  to  their  patrons  fabulous  reports  of  the  spontaneous 
products  there  abounding. 


The  Peopling  of  North  America 

The  character  of  the  men  who  undertake  to  develop  the 
economic  possibilities  of  a  country  is  even  more  important 
than  the  nature  and  extent  of  its  natural  resources.  Energy, 
initiative,  industry,  are  the  traits  that  determine  the 
material  achievements  of  a  nation.  The  most  propitious 
physical  endowment  can  avail  little  if  the  inhabitants  of 
the  land  are  so  ignorant  or  so  sluggish  as  to  leave  its  re- 
sources unexploited. 

The  Aborigines  of  North  America,  so  far  as  history  knows 
them,  were  lacking  in  these  essential  economic  traits. 
Among  the  Iroquois  of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  the  Cher- 
okees  of  the  Appalachians,  as  among  the  Pueblos  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  a  considerable  degree  of  industrial 
and  social  advancement  had  been  attained  before  the  com- 
ing of  the  white  man.  The  Zunis  were  cultivating  the  soil 
for  corn  and  various  vegetables  and  carrying  on  certain 
manufactures,  such  as  pottery  and  cloth,  to  the  point  of 
artistic  form  and  color.  .A  well-organized  community  life 
had  been  evolved  by  the  Pueblo  Indian-^ ;  but  not  evc.i 
here  was  the  rare  endowment  sufficient  to  enable  the  native 
peonies  to  hold  their  own  when  broMght  face  to  face  with 
Europeans.  The  most  civilized  of  all,  the  Aztecs  of  Old 
Mexico,  had  hardly  passed  beyond  the  barbarous  stage 


Shaler, 
United 
States  of 
America, 
I,  \-\\. 

Roosevelt, 
WinninR  of 
the  West, 
I,  Ch.  I. 

Fiske. 

Discovery  of 
.•Vmerica, 
I,  Ch.  I. 


Farrand, 
Ch.  XIV, 
XV. 


8  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Roosevelt, 
I,  49.  SI.  76. 


Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
Amcr.ca,  II, 
Ch.  VIII,  X, 


Bourne, 
Spain  in 
America, 
Ch.  VI,  VII 


of  evolution.    The  famous  empire  of  Montezuma  Avas 
probably  nothing  more  than  a  confederacy  of  pueblos. 

The  industrial  inefficiency  of  the  aborigines  was  evident 
from  the  fact  that  in  the  rich  forest  region  lying  between 
the  Atlantic  coast  and  the  Mississippi  River  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Indians  found  barely  sufficient 
sustenance.  The  same  area  now  supports  sixty  mUlion 
whites,  every  one  of  whom  has  an  ampler  and  more  con- 
stant food  supply  than  any  Indian  brave  could  count  on. 
The  occupation  of  this  continent  by  Europeans  meant 
the  immediate  substitution  of  civUization  for  barbarism 
and  the  rapid  utilization  of  hitherto  unexploited  resources. 
The  energy,  the  initiative,  and  the  industry  of  civUized  races 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  a  virgin  continent.  This  com- 
bination of  industrial  efficiency  with  natural  resources  of 
extraordinary  extent  and  variety  has  resulted  in  economic 
achievements  unparalleled  in  the  world's  history. 

Spain  was  the  first  of  the  European  nations  upon  the 
field,  and  hers  was  apparently  the  best  chance  of  success. 
The  Spanish  explorers  had  hit  upon  the  most  immedi- 
ately profitable  region  of   the  New  World.     Columbus, 
sailing   due  west   from  the   Canary    Islands,   came   first 
upon  the  ilahamas.     Later  voyages  brought  him  to  one 
and  another  of  the  beautiful  tropic  islands  of  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  and  these  hospitable  and  fruitful  lands  furnished  an 
excellent  base  from  which  to  explore  the  coasts  of  the  ad- 
joining continent.     In  his  fourth  and  last  voyage  Columbus 
skirted  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  got  from  the  coast 
Indians  reports  of  a  rich  and  populous  country  back  in  the 
interior    where    manufactures  and   commerce    were    well 
developed.     Twenty  years  later  Cortes  set  out  upon  an  ex- 
pedition that  resulted  in  the  conquest  of  Mexico.     Gua- 
emala,   Honduras,   Yucatan,   and  Nicaragua   were  soon 
added  to  the  New  World  dominions  of  the  kmg  of  Spam. 
After  several  baffling  failures,  the  Pizarros  succeeded  m 
landing  at  Tumbez  and  so. -a  an  astute  combmation  of 
diplomacy  and  force  gave  the  "  golden  kingdom  "  mto 
their  hands.     Columbus  had  found  gold  on  Hispaniola 


ROUTES  OP  THE  EXPLORERS 


Columhui 
l.tv,,j.,p.,  i40o.-fi3 

■  3r.!  yoy,p,,_  149,s.l.-jin 
■  4ih  v(,}3t.,>,  1-Jt;_|.vi4 
•  •  John  mv]  SrlM,i|„„  coh..t,  U!)7-'98 
•I  Hojfda  ■ii.l  Ani.rt|ro  Veipunl,  1 199 
Ponrr  ,1,.  I.,.„„^  J-].) 
Hminml,.  C"ri.  .,  1313 
—  Al.mi.i  J..  Phi.rta,  niO 
— OI„van„i  .In  V,mif;iiir>,  li24 
"rran,i»,„  I'ijiim,,  i.-.jn 
-Panlllo  lie  X.naci,  I.-.'W 


J.iiqurf  Cartlpr,  H34-'3J 

'r.r.n,  Kmy  Marron,  l.i.19 

Hcmaniio  de  Bi.io,  l'!n0-'42 

-'Frnnrlni'o  dp  Conmnilci,  IMO. 

.  ...  Sir  rranils  Drake,  1079 
•  ►...  .  Hrnty  Hudson,  IfilO-H 

-  ^  ^^  Bnniucl  df  Oiamplaln,  IBIS- 

-  ♦  -  Jollrt  tnd  Marquetti',  1073 
— —Robert  do  I.n  Sullc.  liai-'.'tt 

•  -  '  Vareniip  La  Ven-ndryp,  1731 

•  ■  ^  ;  Cay.i.  E-.hrrf  Or?»y^  IT^W 

=  =  :Lewla  ind  Clark,  ISTW 


41 


16 


KoiiU'B  iodk-aU'd  bj-  color  and  hutching. 


The  Land  and  the  People 


in  quantities  that  promised  a  rich  return,  the  followers 
of  Cortes  had  hit  upon  apparently  inexhaustible  veins  of 
silver  at  Potosi  and  Zacatecas  in  Mexico ;  but  all  previous 
finds  were  outdone  by  the  vandals  who  looted  the  treasures 
of  the  Incas.  The  ransom  of  Atahualpa  was  a  roomful 
of  gold  vases  whose  total  value  is  estimated  at  $15,000,000. 
Spanish  galleons  sailed  back  across  the  Atlantic,  their 
holds  stuffed  with  gold  and  silver,  and  Spanish  sea  captains 
returned  home  to  Uve  in  luxury  on  their  ill-won  fortunes. 

This  easily  jotten  wealth  had  a  demoralizing  influence. 
The  energies  of  Spanish  adventurers  were  absorbed  in  the 
quest  for  gold,  and  no  land  seemed  to  them  worthy  of  at- 
tention that  did  not  give  promise  of  limitless  treasure.  The 
vast  regions  to  the  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  were  ex- 
plored in  vain.  Ponce  de  Leon  (1513)  sought  the  fabled 
fountain  of  youth,  while  D'Ayllon  (1526)  and  Gomez  (1525) 
examined  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Labrador  to  Florida  in 
quest  of  a  passage  to  the  Indies  less  circuitous  than  that 
traversed  by  Magellan.  Neither  gold  mines  nor  a  direct 
route  to  the  Orient  rewarded  their  toils,  .and  the  country 
looked  forbidding  to  eyes  wonted  to  a  tropical  vegetation. 
Peter  Martyr  d'Anghiera,  the  friend  of  Columbus,  com- 
menting disapprovingly  on  Gomez'  enterprise,  wrote: 
"  To  the  South,  to  the  South  for  the  great  and  exceeding 
riches  of  the  Equinoctiall :  they  that  seek  riches  must  not 
go  into  the  cold  and  frozen  North." 

Later  expeditions  into  the  interior  discovered  no  El 
Dorado.  Pineda  sailed  up  the  Mississippi  River  (1519) 
and  saw  Indians  wearing  gold  ornaments.  Narvaez  (1525) 
and  De  Soto  (1539- 1542)  in  turn  perished  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  kingdom  that  might  be  as  well  worth  the  plundering 
as  Peru.  The  survivors  of  Narvaez'  ill-fated  expedition 
forced  their  way  across  the  plains  of  Texas,  up  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  over  the  mountains  to  Culiacan,  the  northern- 
most outpost  of  the  Mexican  conquest.  From  Culiacan 
later  adventurers  set  out  to  find  the  seven  cities  of  Cibola 
and  their  storied  treasures.  Fray  Marcos  (1530)  pene- 
trated the  interior  as  far  as  the  Zuni  pueblos  of  New  Mexico. 


Fiske, 

New  France 
and  New 
England, 
Ch.  I-IV. 


Laut, 

Pathfinders 
of  the  West, 
Pt.I. 


Thwaites, 
France  in 
America, 
Ch.  IV,  V. 


Dix, 
Champlain 


lo        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Coronado's  expedition  (154C-1S42)  PUshed  f^^her  north 
to  a  fork  of  the  Platte  River,  but  only  squahd  Indian 
x^lages  rewarded  his  heroic  endeavor.  For  two  centunes 
Safter  all  attempt  to  develop  the  Spanish  domxmons 
north  of  the  thirty-first  parallel  was  abandoned. 

France  -The  papal  bull  that  assumed  to  divide  the 
NewXrld  between  Spain  and  Portugal  was  chaUenged 
bv  FrLis  I,  the  dramatic  king  of  France.    It  is  said  that 
he  sent  a  saucy  message  to  Charles  V,  asking  him  by  what 
right  he  a^d  the  king  of  Portugal  had  undertaken  to  mo^ 
nopolize  the  round  earth.    The  authority  of  the  Holy  See 
weSied  but  lightly  upon  sixteenth  century  Frenclimen 
Ind  they  determined  to  have  their  share  m  the  exploitation 
of  America.    They  sought  their  treasure  m  the  s^^-    As 
early  as  1504  fishing  smacks  from  Bnttany  and  Normandy 
S  their  way  to  the  shoals  off  Newfoundland,  and  by 
X578  France  had  as  large  a  fishing  fleet  in  these  waters  as 
Spain  and  Portugal  combined.    These  sturdy  fishermen 
Sablished  France's  claim  to  littor  ^1  rights  on  the  adorn- 
ing shores  -  a  claim  that  has  vexeu  the  souls  of  diplomats 
to  this  day.    In  1524  Verrazano,  an  Jtalm"  ^^^.^f^^^^^^^ 
in  command  of  a  French  corsair,  explored  the  Atlantic 
coasUrom  Cape  Fear  north  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 
Ten  year"  ate' Ja^^^^^  Carrier  followed  up  the  great  nver 
as  far  as  Montreal  and  founded  the  claim  of  France  to  hat 
section  of  the  New  World.     The  first  attempts  at  setUe^ 
ment  were  made  farther  south  and  well  withm  Spanish 
Territory,  but  the  unhappy  fate  of  the  Huguenot  cobmes 
at  PorY  Royal  and  Fort  Caroline  determined  the  limits 
of  French  adventure.    Thereafter  explorers  from  France 
were  content  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  St.  Lawrence.    They 
soon  came  upon  that  wonderful  chain  of  inland  seas,  and 
followed  their  lead  to  the  heart  of  the  continent     Cham- 
plain,  who  traversed  (1615)  Lakes  Huron  and  Ontario  wth 
an  Indian  war  partv.  thought  he  had  discovered  the  North- 
west  Passage  and'the  long-sought  route  to  the   Indie.. 
Later  adventurers  found  a  more  important  trace  route 
the  great  river  that  connects  the  lake  region  v    .1  the  Gulf 


The  Land  and  tue  People 


II 


of  Mexico.  Nicollet  (X639)  -^^^V^vTSIS 
though  he  did  not  follow  its  '^^.^[^^f;^^^,j;^^,Vand  down 
Joliet  and  Pere  Marquette  paddled  up  the  Yo^^ 


The  French  Settlements. 


12 


Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 


Thwaites, 

Father 

Marquette. 

Benton, 

Wabash 

Trade 

Route, 

Ch.I. 


Laut, 

Pathfinders 
of  the  West, 
Pt.  II. 


Semple, 
25-31- 


the  Wisconsin  to  the  Mississippi,  and  on  to  the  point  where 
the  Arkansas  flows  in  from  the  west.    La  Salle  finally 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  (1682)  and  claimed 
the  vast  drainage  basin  for  France.     In  honor  of  the  Grand 
Monarque  t^"'    splendid  acquisition  was  named  Louisiana. 
Neither  goi^  mines  nor  the  Northwest  Passage  rewarded 
the  zeal  of  the  French  explorers.    The  Indians  told  of 
veins  of  pure  copper  cropping  to  the  surface  near  Lake 
Superior,  but  mines  could  not  profitably  be  worked  for 
lack  of  labor.    The  natives  were  skUled  hunters,  however, 
and  fortunes  might  be  made  in  the  fur  trade,  and  aU  the 
energies  of  the  French  government  were  bent  toward  the 
development  of   this   promising   traffic.    Trading   posts 
were  established  wherever  a  river  or  an  Indian  trad  gave 
access  to  the  hunting  grounds,  forts  were  built  at  strategic 
points,  missions  rose  beside  them,  and  the  Indian  tribes 
were  held  in  check  by  a  diplomatic  alternation  of  bullets 
and  the  gosnel.    The  characteristic  t>T3es  in  these  forest 
settlements  -..ere  the  soldier,  the  fur  trader,  and  the  priest. 
The  bateaux  of  the  vovageurs  were  ever  seeking  new  channels 
of  trade.    Making  their  way  up  the  rivers  that  flow  into 
the  Mississippi,  they  succeeded  in  monopolizing  the  traffic 
in  peltries  over  the  vast  valley  lying  between  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.    It  was  a  French 
trader,  La  Verendrye,  who  crossed  the  watershed  between 
Lake  Superior  and  the  upper  Missouri  (1738),  and  his  sons 
caught  the  first  glimpse  of  the  western  range,  the  peaks 
of  the  Big  Horn  Mountains,  full  seventy-five  years  before 
the  exploring  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark. 

The  French  settlements  were  determined  by  considera- 
tions of  water  transportation.  Quebec  and  Montreal  gave 
control  of  the  St.  Lawrence;  Frontenac,  Niagara,  Detroit, 
Michilimackinac,  and  St.  Marie  guarded  the  entrances  to 
the  Great  Lakes ;  St.  Xavier  watched  beside  the  first  and 
best  trade  route  to  the  Mississippi;  Fort  Duquesne  domi- 
nated the  upper  Ohio;  Vincennes,  the  Wabash;  Fort 
Crevecoeur,  the  Illinois.  Traffic  on  the  Mississippi  was 
equally  well  protected  by  a  series  of  fortified  posts.     Mobile 


The  Land  and  the  People 


13 


(1701)  and  New  Orleans  (1721)  were  founded  on  the  Gulf 
coast  in  defiance  of  Spanish  preoccupation. 

Thus  was  outlined  a  noble  empire  quite  worthy  of  the 
ambition  of  Louis  XIV.  infinite  courage,  devotion,  self- 
sacrifice,  went  into  the  effort  to  establish  the  claim  of 
France  to  this  portion  of  the  New  World,  but  the  enter- 
prise ended  in  failure  and  loss.  The  French  domain  was 
forfeited  because  the  French  colonies  had  no  lasting  in- 
dustrial basis.  French  settlements  did  not  strike  root 
because  neither  soldier,  priest,  nor  voyageiir  had  a  life 
interest  in  the  country.  When  the  fur-bearing  animals 
were  killed  off  and  the  Indian  tribes  had  retreated  into 
the  interior,  the  mission  trading  post  dwindled  into  in- 
significance. Only  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  where  agri- 
cultural colonies  were  planted,  did  the  French  secure  a 
permanent  hold  upon  the  region  opened  up  by  their  ex- 
plorers. To  Sir  John  Hawkins,  who  visited  Port  Royal 
in  1565  and  found  the  colonists  starving  in  the  midst  of 
plenty,  the  difficulty  was  evident.  "  Notwithstanding 
the  i^reat  want  that  the  French  had,  the  ground  doth  yeeld 
victuals  sufficient,  if  they  would  have  taken  paines  to  get 
the  same ;  but  they  being  souldiers,  desired  to  live  by  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  browes." 

Great  Britain.  —  England's  right  to  a  share  in  North 
America  rested  upon  the  e.xploring  expeditions  sent  out 
by  Henry  VII.  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot  (1497-1498) 
skirted  the  coast  from  Cape  Breton  to  Cape  Hatteras  and 
laid  claim  to  the  territory  in  the  name  of  the  niggardly 
monarch  who  financed  the  expedition.  The  opening  was 
little  piized  at  the  time  and  not  immediately  followed  up, 
for  the  region  seemed  unpromising.  No  gold  mines  were 
discovered,  and  nature  was  far  less  kind  than  in  the  tropic 
islands  farther  south.  Therr  was  no  lack  of  adventurous 
mariners  in  sbcteenth  cent  ^  England,  but  the  nation's 
energies  were  absorbed  in  a  life  and  death  struggle  with 
Spain.  English  sea  captains  found  more  honor  and  profit 
in  sacking  the  rich  towns  of  the  Spanish  Main  and  pillaging 
the  treasure  ships  on  their  homeward  voyages,  than   in 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
III,  396. 


Hakluyt's 

Voyages, 

X.S6. 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 
I,  Ch.  I. 


'5 


Hakluyt's 
Voyages, 

XI,  IOI-I32- 

Payne, 
Voyages  of 
Elizabethan 
Seamen, 
First  Series, 
196-229. 


Osgood, 
American 
Colonies, 
I,  Pt.  I, 
Ch.  I. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
III,  Ch.  IV. 


Tyler, 
England 
in  America, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


Week*. 
Lost  Colony 
of  Kounoke, 


14        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

exploration  along  the  bleak  Atlantic  coast.  Yet  credi'^ 
for  the  first  important  discoveries  in  the  north  I  mu.'. 
belongs  to  England.  Sir  Francis  Drake  (1577-  S^S) 
sailed  thiough  the  Straits  of  Magellan  and  up  the  va  i 
coast  of  South  Americ. ,  where  he  plundered  the  SpcH.-H 
ports  and  the  galleons  on  their  way  home  from  Peru. 
Not  wishing  to  risk  his  booty  by  returning  through  Spanish 
waters,  he  sailed  on  up  the  coast  of  the  northern  continent 
to  the  forty-third  parallel  and  then  across  the  Pacific  and 
Indian  oceans,  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  so 
home  tc  Plymouth  harbor. 

Drake  was  the  first  navigator  to  "  put  a  girdle  around 
the  earth,"  but  he  had  no  thought  of  colonies.     The  first 
attempt  to  settle  the  British  possessions  in  America  was 
made  by  the  brave  and  knightly  Sir  Humphrey  Gilucrt. 
Obtaining  the  queen's  comr.iissioh,  he  sailed  directly  across 
the  Atlantic  and  ia.  ded  somewhere  on  the  coast  of  New- 
foundland in  June,  1583.     The  season  was  delightful,  and 
raised  false  hopes  of  success,  but  winter  brought  cold  and 
tempests  such  as  these  Englishmen  had  never  experienced, 
and  the  enterprise  was  abandoned.     On  the  homeward 
voyage  Gilbert's  ship,  the  Squirrel,  went  down  with  all 
on  board.     His  younger  half-br-   her,  Sir  Walter  Ralegh, 
succeeded  to  his  commission  and  his  task.     Ralegh  was 
the  son  of  an  English  sea  captai  1.     While  still  a  student 
at  Oxford  he  conned  with  Hakluyt,  compiler  of  "The 
Voyages  and  Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation,"  the  per- 
plexing maps  of  the  New  World  and  read  all  the  narratives 
of  the  cxi)lorers  then  available.     Student  though  he  was 
and  courtier,  he  was  a  man  of  action  as  well.     Consumed 
by  the  passionate  desire  to  secure  for  England  her  due 
share  in  the  wealth  of  the  New  World,  he  staked  fame  and 
fort\me,  life  iisclf,  on  the  undertaking.     Three  separate 
exp       "ons  this  great  i)atriot  sent  out  at  his  own  charge. 
Foi      thousand  pounds  was  spent  in  the  endeavor  to  plant 
an      P2'"  ■    colony  at   Roanoke  Islmd  (1585-1580),  but 
a  series     .  unavoidable  misfortunes  thwarted  the  enter- 
prise.   On  the  accession  of  James  I,  Ralegh  v. as  thrown 


The  Land  and  the  People 


15 


into  the  Tower,  where  he  was  finally  beheaded;  but  ,  s 
undaunted  soul  never  lost  faith  in  the  ultimate  realiza- 
tion of  his  dream.  Of  Virginia,  the  land  his  devoted  service 
had  won  for  England,  he  said,  "  I  shall  yet  live  to  see  it  an 
English  nation."  Though  Ralegh's  colonies  failed,  and 
his  hope  of  discovering  an  El  Dorado  on  the  Orinoco  came 
to  naught,  the  explorations  undertaken  at  his  expense  re- 
enforced  England's  claim  to  the  territory  south  of  Cape 
Hatteras  and  indicated  the  most  favorable  location  for 
future  endeavor. 

The  physical  conditions  of  the  Atlantic  coast  were  highly 
favorable  to  colonization  from  England,  for  the  British 
possessions  lay  directly  across  the  sea  from  Plymouth 
and  the  Cinque  Ports.  Throughout  the  sixteenth  century 
English  sea  captains  had  followed  the  Spanish  route  and 
steered  south  to  the  Canaries,  then  due  west  to  the  Antilles, 
and  thence  north  to  Cape  Fear.  Ralegh's  costly  expe- 
ditions made  this  circuitous  voyage.  In  1602  Barthol- 
omew Gosnold,  one  of  Ralegh's  associates,  ventured  to 
sail  straight  across  the  Atlantic  and  came,  happily,  upon 
Massachusetts  Bay.  This  adventure  proved  that  England 
lay  one  thousand  miles  nearer  to  her  American  provinces 
than  did  Spain  to  hers,  and  thereafter  the  direct  route  was 
usually  followed.  The  strip  of  coast  open  to  British  enter- 
prise was,  moreover,  i)eculiarly  accessible  from  the  sea.  sample. 
A  fine  series  of  rivers  —  the  Connecticut,  the  Hudson,  the  ^^-  ''■ 
Delaware,  the  Suscjuehanna,  the  Potomac,  the  James  — 
take  their  rise  in  the  Ajipalachiaii  highlands  and,  being 
navigable  for  small  boats  well-nigh  to  their  sources  proved 
as  serviceable  to  explore-s  and  pioneers  as  so  many  mac- 
adamized roads. 

The  first  successful  English  settlement,  Jamestown,  was  Fiskc. 
made  on  a  tributary  of  the  wonderful  bay  that  Ralegh  "'|!  ^^'fR'^'^ 
had  divined  to  be  an  open  highway  to  the  wealth  of  \'ir- 
ginia.  The  feasibility  of  an  agricultural  settlement  once 
demonstrated,  others  quickly  followed.  Plymouth  colony 
wa«  planted  in  1620.  Salem  in  162H,  Boston  in  the  yt>:ir 
following.     From   1630  to  1640  no  year  passed  but  saw 


\iMKhbt)r<, 
I,  Ch.  III. 


1 6        Industrial  History  of  the  United  5.  ites 


St  mple, 
Ch.  III. 


some  shipload  of  colonists  leave  Bristol  or  Plymouth  or 
London  bound  for  Arr'^rica.  No  harbor  or  inlet  or  river 
in  his  Majesty's  plantations  but  was  explored  by  these 
brave  home  seekers.  By  1640  there  were  twenty-one 
thousand  settlers  ii  New  England  alone  and  perhaps  half 
as  many  more  in  Virginia.  During  the  next  twenty  years, 
the  Puritans  stayed  at  home  and  the  Royalists  were  fain 
to  find  a  refuge  in  Virginia,  but  the  restored  Stuarts  forced 
the  migration  of  another  crop  of  traitors  and  malcontents. 
Oglethorpe's  colony  in  Georgia  (1732)  attracted  poor 
debtors  and  other  unfortunates  from  Europe  as  well  as 
from  the  British  Isles. 

Scattered  along  the  coast  from  Pemaquid  to  Savannah, 
rarely  venturing  inland  beyond  reach  of  navigable  water, 
divided  from  the  interior  of  the  continent  by  a  discourag- 
ing mountain  barrier,  settlers  in  the  English  provinces 
were  forced  to  make  the  most  of  the  land  within  their 
reach.  Geographic  conditions  favored  the  formation  of 
compact  communities.  The  lands  available  for  settle- 
ment were  in  a  narrow  strip  of  territory  rising  from  the  sea 
to  the  foothills  of  the  .\ppalachian  range.  The  northern- 
most third,  since  it  is  largely  mountainous,  offered  the 
least  attraction  to  colonists.  Southward  the  lowlands 
broaden  to  a  tract  of  three  hundred  miles  width.  Geo- 
logically this  lowland  is  di\-ided  between  coastal  plain  and 
Piedmont  j)lateau.  The  coastal  plain  is  the  ancient  sea 
beach  lifted  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  the  tide.  To 
the  north  it  is  represented  by  detached  areas  —  Cape  Cod, 
Nantucket,  Martha's  Vineyard.  Long  Island,  New  Jeresy, 
and  Delaware.  To  the  south  it  becomes  the  dominant 
physical  feature.  Pine  ba'rens  cover  its  undulating  levels, 
but  in  the  ri\  er  bottoms  the  original  sand  and  gravel  are 
covered  with  alluvial  deposit.  Near  the  sea  the  land  oozes 
away  into  swamp  and  morass,  heavily  wooded  with  cypress 
and  live  oak,  and  alo.ig  the  Jersey  and  Carolina  coasts, 
bayous  and  open  sounds  divide  the  mainland  from  a  chain 
of  shifting  sand  dunes  that  form  the  outer  boundary. 
The  lands  of  the  coa:  tal  plain  throughout  were  easily 


The  Land  and  the  Piople 


reached  and  cleared.  The  Piedmont  plateau  from  Penn- 
sylvania to  Georgia  is  rough  hill  country,  heavily  forested 
before  the  advent  of  the  white  man  with  p  ne,  hemlock, 
and  hard  woods.  The  "  fall  line  "  that  divides  the  coastal 
plain  from  the  Piedmont  indicates  the  drop  from  the  foot- 


^^-sl^c^^ 


Kl  ROI'KAN  CLAIMS^ 

IN 

XOUTH   AMKHICA 

3C*  -t  Of    W|t.t> 

"      juu    vu     ta.     Hoo    h'To 


j  r     ^ — ,'. }         \ 
- —  /  \    \        / 

f  .1/  /;    v   /   v_(\ --'-  *'"b'.' 


□''"'"•*     [/]'>"''■'' 


I'      \Iy\      Lonrilinl*  Writ ftwn  CMfHwle' 


hills  to  sea  level  and  marks  the  head  of  navigable  water. 
Settlers  did  not  penetrate  this  "  Ixick  country  "  till  the 

supply  of  fe.tile  lowlands  was  exhausted.  y\^Vc 

Holland.   -Of  the  maritime  countries  of  Europe,  the  ThdJutch 

Dutch  were  by  no  means  the  least  enterprising,  but  their  ".""^  *^."ai'" 

energies  were  largely  absorbed  in  developing  their  trade  i.ch"iTi.iv. 


i  * 

il 


1 8        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Janvier, 

Henry 

Hudson, 

ch.  iv-vni. 


Mem.  Hist. 


interests  in   the  Orient.     The  commercial   opportunities 
of  the  western  continent  were  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam  by  the  voyage  of  Henry 
Hudson  (1609).     Commissioned  by  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  to  seek  out  the  ever  desired  Northwest  Passage, 
he  came  upon  a  wonderful  harbor  and  a  river,  up  which 
he  sailed  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  before  coming  upon 
shoal  water.     The  Indians   proving  friendly  and  ready 
to   exchange  valuable   furs   for   the  merest  baubles,  the 
merchants  of  Amsterdam  fitted  out  a  trading  ship,  and  in 
good  time  she  returned  with  a  profitable  cargo.     A  fortified 
.Mem.  n...     trading  post  was  built  on  Castle  Island  just  below  Albany, 
of  New  York,   another  on  Manhattan  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  a 
I,  Ch.  IV.       ^^.^^  ^^  ^^^  Delaware.     In  162 1  the  West  India  Company 
was  chartered  and  given  monopoly  of  commerce  with  the 
West  Indies,  Africa,  and  the  American   coast,  and  full 
authority    to   plant   colonies   in   New   Netherland.     The 
Company's   trading   posts   gave   access   to   rich   hunting 
grounds,  and  a  brisk  commerce  in  furs  developed.     Soon 
an  annual  harvest  of  sixty-six  thousand  skins  was  sent  over 
to  the  furriers  of  fashionable  Europe.     Other  opportunities 
of  wealth  were  improved  by  the  doughty  Dutchmen.     The 
treasure  ships  of  Spain  were  lawful  booty,   and  slaves 
bought  on  the  Gold  Coast  of  Africa  might  be  sold  m  the 
West  Indies  for  many  times  their  purchase  price. 

The  West  India  Company  grew  rich  apace,  but  their 
colonies  did  not  prosper.  The  inhabitants  of  New  Am- 
sterdam were  mere  servants  of  the  Company,  among  whom 
were  few  genuine  settlers.  The  agricultural  commumties 
along  the  Hudson,  made  up  of  feudal  dependents  of  the 
"  patroons,"  were  discontented  and  eager  to  change  masters. 
Holland's  New  World  possessions  were  far  more  promising 
than  England's,  not  for  commerce  only,  but  for  agnculture 
and  manufactures.  The  Dutch  settlers  had  a  more  genial 
climate  and  a  more  fertile  soil  than  their  neighl)ors  to  the 
eastward,  ihcir  forests  furni..ied  the  be^t  nf  timber, 
and  their  rivers  afforded  unexcelled  water  power ;  but  in- 
dustry languished  because  the  fruits  of  labor,  the  surplus 


The  Land  and  the  People 


19 


products  of  field  and  loom  and  mill,  were  claimed  by  the 
over-lord  to  whom  the  home  goxernment  had  given  the 
land.  The  fact  that  the  States-General  sent  them  gover- 
nors and  garrisons  did  not  much  signify  when  the  oppor- 
tunity for  a».quiring  land  and  fortune  was  withheld,  and 
loyalty  waned  as  men  learned  how  the  English  villages 
throve  under  freer  laws.  So  it  came  about  that  when 
England,  jealous  of  the  commercial  ascendancy  of  Hol- 
land, sent  a  fleet  to  capture  her  trading  posts  in  America, 
there  was  no  serious  resistance,  and  the  Dutch  governor  was 
obliged  to  surrender  New  Amsterdam  (1664)  without  firing 
a  gun  in  its  defense.  Immediately  settlers  began  to  pour 
in  from  the  English  colonies  north  and  south  and  from 
over  the  sea.  The  population  of  New  Netherland  at  the 
time  of  the  conquest  was  seventy-five  hundred.  It  had 
doubled  by  1696.  The  Swedish  settlements  along  the 
Delaware  succumbed  as  readily  to  Enghsh  influence. 
Thus  did  Great  Britain  acquire  title  to  the  Atlantic  coast 
from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  St.  Mary's  River. 

The  Final  Victory  of  the  English.  —  Once  rooted  in  a  soil  Bancroft, 
unquestionably  their  own,  the  British  colonies  grew  with   [!'*.'•  "^ 
amazing  rapidity.     At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  states, 
there  were  two  hundred  and  si.xty  thousand  of  the  king's  IV,  127- 130. 
subjects  in  America.     Fifty  years  more  saw  the  number 
rise  to  one  million  souls.     The  first  United  States  census  Dexter, 
(i7Qo)  recorded  a  population  of  three  million  nine  hundred   Population 

1  .1  1  f    T-  J  .in  the 

and  twenty-nme  thousand  persons  of  European  descent.  Ameri.an 
Fully  one  fifth  of  these  people  spoke  some  other  language  Colonies, 
than  English  and  probably  not  more  than  half  were  of 
Anglo-Saxon  blood.  There  were  Dutch  communities  along 
the  Hudson,  German  in  Pennsylvania,  Swedish  along  the 
Dtlaware,  Italians  and  Salzburgers  and  French  in  Georgia, 
while  Huguenot  refugees  were  numerous  in  the  coast  towns, 
notably  Boston,  New  York,  and  Charleston ;  but  every- 
where the  dominant  element  was  of  English  extraction. 

This  cxtraufdinaf>^  migration  was  largely  due  to  social 
and  industrial  conditions  in  the  British  Isles.  The  rel'gious 
and  political  tyranny  of  the  Commonwealth,  no  less  than 


20        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

that  of  the  Stuarts,  drove  thinking  men  to  seelc  opportunity 
to  work  out  their  own  convictions  in  a  land  where  there  was 
neither  priest  nor  king.     The  agricultural  revolution  con- 
sequent on  the  conversion  of  tilled  lands  into  she--  pasture 
threw  thousands  of  men  out  of  employment.     The  peasant 
farmers  lost  their  holdings,  the  agricultural  laborers  were 
no  longer  needed,  and  seventeenth  century  England  was 
unable   to  maintain  her   sons.     The  surplus  population 
turned  to  the  New  World,  where  land  was  to  be  had  for 
the  asking.     Most  of  the  men  who  crossed  the  Atlantic 
in  EngUsh  vessels  were  not  priests,  soldiers,  trappers,  gold 
seekers,  but  men  bred  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.     They 
brought  their  wives  and  children  with  them  and  purposed 
to  found  homes  in  America,  and  they  had  sober  ideas  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  earning  their  bread  by  hardj..ork. 
The  land  open  to  English  settlement  contamed  no  hoards 
of  gold  and  silver,  but  it  proved  to  have  sources  of  wealth 
no  less  remunerative  in  the  long  run.     Fur-beanng  animals 
were  abundant,  and  forests  of  pine  and  oak  yielded  naval 
Ttores  that  brought  a  good  price  in  Old  World  markets. 
The  sea  teemed  with  edible  fish,  oysters,  and  loosters 
Captain  John  Smith,  who  explored  the  New  England  coast 
in  l6i4  and  wrote  a  rose-colored  account  of  its  possibilities 
prophesied,  and  truly,  that  the  cod  fisheries  of  the  north 
Atlantic  would  profit  this  country  more  than  the  best  mines 
the  king  of  Spain  possessed.     Soil  and  climate  were  suited 
to  the  growing  of  familiar  European  cereals,  and  new 
products,  such  as  maize,  potatoes,  and  tobacco,  were  des- 
tined to  become  a  prolific  source  of  wealth. 

Four  European  nations  laid  claim  to  the  territory  now 
included  in  the  United  States,  and  each  attempted  to  secure 
its  title  by  planting  colonies  and  providing  for  military 
defense  We  have  seen  how  Holland  lost  New  Nether- 
land  "through  failure  to  plant  free  agricultura  colonies. 
France  made  strenuous  effort  to  hold  her  New  World  terri- 
tory calling  in  the  Indians  to  defend  her  sparsely  peopled 
ouTposts;  but  in  176,1  she  was  forced  to  surrender  her 
claim  to  the  eastern  half  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  forty 


The  Land  and  the  People 


21 


years  later  Louisiana  Territory  passed  into  the  possession 
of  the  United  States.  Spain  had  even  slighter  hold  on 
the  lands  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  for  no  permanent 
settlements  had  been  made  between  St.  Augustine  and 
Santa  Fe.  Missions  had  been  built  in  plenty,  and  the 
native  races  were  converted  to  the  Catholic  church,  but 
not  to  European  civilization.  Here  were  noble  rivers, 
vast  forests,  and  a  soil  unsurpassed  for  fertility,  but  Span- 
ish adventurers  had  not  patience  to  undertake  the  develop- 
ment of  a  region  so  barren  of  immediate  gain.  Castenada, 
the  chronicler  of  Coronado's  unlucky  expedition,  had  no 
hope  of  success  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  "  because  that 
part  of  the  country  is  full  of  bogs  and  poisonous  fruits, 
and  the  very  worst  country  that  is  warmed  by  the  sun." 
By  a  series  of  treaties  the  United  States  has  secured  Spain's 
empire  in  North  America  — the  Floridas  in  1819,  Texas 
in  1845,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  and  California  in  1848. 
The  English  race,  the  last  upon  the  scene,  with  apparently 
the  most  unpromising  field  for  colonial  enterprise,  was 
destined  to  occupy  the  whole  land  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Great  Lakes. 
Even  the  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  the  Isthmus  of 
Paiiam.a,  and  the  Spanish  Main  have  finally  come  under 
ou;  I-  .nirol.  The  Oriental  empire,  discovered  by  Magellan 
and  maintained  by  priests  and  soldiers  for  near  four  hundred 
years,  toppled  at  a  blow,  and  Spain  was  obliged  at  last 
to  surrender  the  Philippines  to  her  vigorous  rival. 


La  Salle's  Ship,  "The  GRirrui' 


CHAPTER   II 


Hakluyt's 

Voyages, 
X,  s8. 

Payne, 
First  Scries, 
03- 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
NeiKhbors, 
I.  43-47  ■ 


Hakluyt, 
A  Discourse 
of  Western 
Planting, 
Maine  Hist. 
Society 
Collections, 
1877. 


THE   BUSINESS   ASPECTS   OF   COLONIZATION 

Contemporary   Estimates  of  the   possibilities   of    the 
Bntish  possessions  in  America   were  colored,  naturally 
enough,  by  Spanish  experience.     The  first  explorers  sent 
home  exaggerated  reports  of  what  they  saw  and  heard 
Verrazano  asserted  that  gold,  silver,  and  copper  abounded 
on  the  Carolma  coast,  and  Jacques  Cartier  gave  a  no  less 
hopeful  account  of  the  St.  Lawrence  country.     Jean  Ri- 
liault,  commandant  of  the  Huguenot  colony  at  Port  Royal 
observed  that  the  natives  wore  ornaments  made  of  the 
precious  metals  and  argued  that  the  mines  could  not  be 
far   away.     John    Sparke,    the   chronicler   of    Hawkins's 
second  v'oyage,  shrewdly  suspected  that  the  Indians  had 
filched  their  gold  and  silver  from  the  wreck  of  Spanish 
treasure  ships  cast  upon  this  stormy  coast;   neverthek- 
he  believed  that  back  in  the  interior  "  where  are  high  hilles' 
may  be  golde  and  silver  as  well  as  in  Mexico  because  it  is 
all  one  mame." 

As  the  country  became  better  known,  soberer  opinions 

^f  TV'  .^  '"'^  ''^^'''"  ^^  '■"^^'"^  ^'^^t  the  great  advantage 
of  the  ,\ew  World  possessions  lay  in  the  fact  that  America 
was  a  virgin  continent  where  land  was  to  be  had  in  limit- 
less tracts  and  where  ihere  was  no  immediate  fear  of  a 
diminishing  return  from  the  soil.  In  "  Western  Planting  " 
a  shrewd  estimate  of  the  possibilities  of  America  written 
by  Hakluyt,  we  find  set  forth  the  economic  advantu  'p  that 
\vould  accrue  to  Great  Britain  from  the  planting  of  colonie-^ 
across  the  sea.  Such  enterprises  would  serve  to  drain  off 
the  surplus  population  of  the  mother  country.  Thousands 
of  able-bodied  men,  yeomen,  and  artisans,  for  whom  there 

22 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization 


23 


was  no  employment  at  home,  might  find  in  America  op- 
portunity to  earn  an  honest  living.     Such  colonies  would, 

wh?;h  T    .  ^   "'u-  "'^'''''   ^"'"  ^^"g'^^^^  manufactures 
which  were  languishmg  for  lack  of  purchasers     It  was  «  , ,     - 
hoped  that  even  the  savages  would  develoTa  t-telo    SSf 
c  othes  and  would  thus  increase  the  demand  for  woolen  ^"^-  "- 
cloth  such  as  English  looms  produced  in  plenty.     In  ex- 

senXrt\  k'T^";  manufactures,  the  colonists  would 
send  back  to  England  commodities  of  which  the  govern- 
ment stood  greatly  in  need  for  the  maintenance  of  the  navy 
such  as  "^asts  and  spars,  tar  and  pitch,  cordage  and  iron.' 
Timber  and  pitch  had  hitherto  been  imported  from  Russia 
and  Poland,  the  iron  had  come  from  Spain,  the  copper 
ItT.if  Th^"--    ?"^  ""'''''''  ^""^^  be  had  f;om  AmeTI 

rL.f -n  t"  T'"    r."''  '^'  '"PP'y  ^^'^^  '^^t'^^^.  and  be- 
cause in  trade  with  English  colonies  there  could  be  none 

o  the  troublesome  exactions  suffered  in  the  dominions  of 
the  Czar,  none  of  the  risks  encountered  by  British  traders 
in  hostile  Spanish  ports.  This  colonial  traffic  would  give 
profitab  e  employment  to  English  merchant  vessels,  forced 
to  he  Idle  smce  the  Dutch  commercial  ascendancy,  and  to 
English  seamen  who  were  hiring  themselves  to  foreigners 
since  they  could  not  find  service  under  the  British  flag' 
Whatever  revenue  was  to  be  derived  from  tariffs  and  ton- 
"refsur  '  '''''"''^'  """'■'''''■"•  ^^'^''"^  '«  ^s  Majesty's 
The  Financing  of  the  Colonies 

The  Chartered   Companies.  -  So  evident  were  these  Brown 
advantages   that   Parliament   was   urged   to   appropriate   '-^-f 
money  for  equipping  a  colonial  venture  on  the  ground  that   ^!'^''""'='^ 
It  was  more  honorable  that  the  state  should  back  such  an  I  ,S.. 
enterprise  than  surrender  it  to  private  monopoly.     No  jr"'." 
state  fund  was  voted,  however,  and  at  the  Request  of  "'  '^^-'"''• 

certain  firm  and  hearty  lovers  of  colonisation,"  Hakluyt 
among  the  number,  the  king  intrusted  the  undertaking 

n.r^n         4r  r^'""^  ''""'^  companies  chartered  for  that 
purpose.     The  London  Company  was  assigned  the  region 


f  1 


24        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


|l» 


Cheyney, 
Ch.VII.VIII. 


Lucas, 
Charters  of 
the  Old 
English 
Colonies, 
9-28. 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I,  71,  280, 
306,  3og,  3QI. 
465,  460 ;  II, 
555.558,581, 
68s,  688. 


lying  between  the  thirty-fourth  and  the  thirty-eighth 
parallels,  and  the  Plymouth  Company  that  between  the 
forty-first  and  the  forty-fifth.  The  region  intervening 
\  as  open  to  colonization  on  the ^  part  of  either  com- 
pany or  by  other  "  adventurers."  Later  charters  (1609 
and  161 2)  vested  in  the  incorporators  the  govern- 
ment of  such  colonies  as  they  should  establish  and  the 
monopoly  of  trade  between  the  colonists  and  the  mother 
country.  The  money  necessary  to  fit  out  a  colonial  ex- 
pedition —  to  transport  colonists  and  provide  the  food  and 
clothing  for  their  maintenance  during  the  initial  years  — 
was  secured  by  sale  of  stock.  Each  subscriber  received 
a  "  bill  of  adventure,"  which  entitled  him  to  a  share  in 
the  profits  of  the  enterprise.  It  soon  became  evident  that 
no  dividends  were  forthcoming,  but  subscriptions  were 
none  the  less  urged  on  grounds  of  public  expediency.  The 
planting  of  colonies  in  America  came  to  be  considered  a 
patriotic  obligation.  The  clergy  were  enjoined  to  urge 
it  upon  their  congregations  as  a  Christian  duty,  and 
lotteries  were  opened  in  this  interest.  One  hundred  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons  took  stock  in  the  London 
Company,  subscribing  from  £37  \os.  to  £75  each.  The 
wealthy  citizens  of  Dover  and  Sandwich  contributed 
liberally  to  this  faraway  venture,  and,  in  response  to  the 
request  of  the  lord  mayor,  the  trade  guilds  of  London  opened 
their  coffers  and  gave  £5000  toward  the  founding  of  an 
English  colony  over-sea. 

The  sending  of  colonists  to  America  was  undertaken 
on  a  purely  business  basis.  The  initial  expenses  were 
great,  but  it  was  hoped  that  the  ultimate  profit  to  the 
adventurers  in  the  way  of  dividends  and  to  the  country 
as  a  whole  by  the  beneficial  effects  of  colonial  trade  would 
bring  full  compensation.  The  capital  accumulated  by 
the  corporation  was  invested  in  supplies  —  agricultural 
implements,  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses,  and  food  to  last  the 
colonists  until  the  first  harvest.  For  a  term  of  from  live 
to  seven  years  the  supplies  were  treated  as  a  common  store 
from  which  the  needs  of  the  "  planters  "  —  men,  women, 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Coiomaatton  25 


and  children  —  were  supplied.  Each  able-bodied  man  was 
to  work  according  to  his  capacity  at  the  task  assigned  him, 
whether  hunting,  fishing,  plowing,  or  at  carpentering  or 
smith's  work,  and  the  products  of  their  labor  were  turned 
into  the  common  stock.  The  first  houses  put  up  were 
used  by  all  in  common,  and  the  first  boats  built  belonged 
to  the  community.  Each  colony  was  expected  to  send 
some  marketable  product  to  the  representatives  of  the 
company  in  England. 

At  Jamestown,  the  first  enterprise  of  the  London  Com- 
pany, for  example,  a  magazine,  was  erected  for  housing  the 
common  stores,  and  a  "  cape  merchant  "  was  appointed 
to  receive  and  distribute  them.  The  plan  was  far  from 
successful,  because  it  did  not  oflfer  sufficient  incentive  to 
labor.  Few  men  will  put  forth  their  best  endeavors  when 
their  needs  are  met  out  of  a  public  fund  and  they  realize 
no  advantage  from  individual  effort.  The  Jamestown 
colonists  shirked  their  tasks,  and,  the  supplies  being  soon 
exhausted.  Captain  Smith  was  forced  to  announce  that 
every  man  must  perform  his  share  of  the  work  or  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  colony.  "  Every  one  that  gathereth  not 
every  day  as  much  as  I  do,  the  next  day,  shall  be  set  be- 
yond the  river  and  forever  be  banished  from  the  fort,  and 
live  there  or  starve."  After  this  energetic  taskmaster 
returned  to  England  (1609),  the  fields  were  neglected, 
the  cattle  were  killed  for  eating,  and  the  "  starving  time  " 
came  upon  the  infant  colony.  But  for  the  timely  arrival 
of  Lord  Delaware  with  fresh  supplies  and  adequate  au- 
thority, the  Jamestown  settlement  would  have  met  the 
fate  of  Roanoke.  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  who  was  sent  out  by 
the  company  in  161 1,  put  matters  on  a  better  footing  by 
assigning  to  each  man  a  piece  of  garden  land  for  his  own 
use.  Thereafter  there  was  no  difficulty  in  inducing  the 
settlers  to  till  the  soil  on  their  own  account,  but  the  re- 
quirement that  they  should  labor  one  month  out  of  every 
year  for  the  company  was  grudgingly  obeyed.  So  eager 
were  the  directors  for  a  money  return  on  their  venture  that 
they  ordered  Captain  Newport,  when  he  sailed  for  Virginia 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 

Osgood, 
I,  Pt.  I, 
Ch.  III. 

Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I,  71,  402- 
13- 

Works  of 
Captain 
Ji/hn  Smith, 
89-174. 
497-S43- 


Tyler, 

Ch.  III-VI. 


Bassett, 
Virginia 
Planter  and 
London 
Merchant. 


!.» 


MI 


26        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
III,  I7S-I77 

Osgood, 
I,  34-44- 


in  1608,  to  bring  back  a  cargo  of  products  worth  £2000 
(the  cost  of  this  second  supply)  and  intinvited  that,  if 
profits  were  not  soon  realized,  the  colony  would  be  aban- 
doned, since  the  discouraged  stockholders  were  withdraw- 
ing their  pledges.  Newport  carried  with  him  eight  skilled 
artisans,  and  these  men  got  together  some  tar,  pitch,  glass, 
and  iron  ore.  These  commodities,  together  with  clapboards 
cut  by  the  colonists  "  for  their  exercise  at  leisure  times," 
made  up  the  first  return  cargo  from  Virginia. 

The  colony  sent  to  Sagadahoc  on  the  Kennebec  River 
by  the  Plymouth  Company,  in  1606,  set  out  under  brilliant 
auspices. '  It  was  planned  by  Lord  John  Popham,  Chief 
Justice  of  England,  and  officered  by  his  brother,  George 
Popham,  and  his  nephew,  Ralegh  Gilbert.  The  rank  and 
file  of  the  settlers,  however,  were  rough,  wild  fellows  picked 
up  in  the  seaports,  who  had  little  ability  and  less  inclina- 
tion for  hard  work.  The  summer  season  was  wasted  in 
exploring  expeditions,  and  the  friendship  of  the  Indians 
was  forfeited  through  wanton  cruelty.  Winter  found  the 
colonists  unprepared,  and  the>  could  gel  neither  corn  nor 
furs  from  the  outraged  natives.  Pophum  died,  and  the 
colony  was  so  reduced,  by  disease  and  starvation  that, 
when  the  supply  ship  arrived  in  the  i,\^xm^.  the  men  would 
hear  of  nothing  but  immediate  return  to  England.  They 
carried  home  an  evil  report  ol  the  land  vhtre-  they  had 
suffered  so  much  hardship,  .md  the  PKtnjuin  Comf>;iny, 
disheartened  by  this  costly  experiment.  mui2Es«!  no  nore 
colonies  at  its  own  expense. 

These  failures  on  the  part  ot  the  csamewe  3isr>anies 
arc  not  to  be  regretted.  The  Fnslise  sasnenasn-  -night 
have  been  mere  trading  p<r~i  cifienaein  m  -3e  jh"  will 
of  a  merchant  company  liu  tk-  1  'utc::  cowaar-  -v-.  the 
Hudson,  but  for  the  fortunate  cinrum«ii£5ce  isei  cte  first 
ventures  were  unsuccessful  u:id  Trturnei  m  iirolit  on  ttie 
investment.  The  --tockholdi -?  secamr  dtcotini|f«i.  the 
managers  got  into  trouble  '  th  liir  iio-reraiBenz.  ;^ici  tric 
charters  were  withdrawn,  XhvL  as  the  L^jnttes  (  Ji^an>  m 
1 624,  that  of  the  Council  for    tr«  Ensliinu  t*^-?r^  \fsrs  after. 


Tlie  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  27 


Associations  of  Adventurers.  —  Later  colonies  were 
financed  by  private  associations,  each  of  which  secured 
a  charter  giving  title  to  a  definite  strip  of  territory  and 
more  or  less  adequate  political  control  of  the  projected 
settlements.  The  first  successful  settlement  within  the 
domain  of  the  Plymouth  Company  was  made  by  a  group 
of  Separatists  who,  finding  the  England  of  James  I  a  difficult 
place  to  live  in,  sought  to  establish  a  government  more  to 
their  Hking  in  the  New  World.  The  seventy  London 
merchants  who  financed  this  enterprise  subscribed  £10 
each  and  made  careful  provision  for  a  money  return.  In 
the  articles  of  agreement  between  the  associated  ad- 
venturers and  the  planters  uf  Plymouth,  it  was  stipulated 
that  the  parties  to  the  contract  were  to  "  continue  their 
joynt  stock  &  partnership  togeather,  y  space  of  7  years, 
.  .  .  during  which  time,  all  profits  &  benifits  that  are 
gott  by  trade  ...  or  any  other  means  of  any  person  or 
persons  remaine  still  in  the  coiinone  stock."  The  planters 
were  to  labor  on  the  common  fields  for  the  common  good. 
It  was  hoped  that  a  considerable  revenue  would  be  realized, 
if  not  from  actual  products,  then  from  the  profits  of  trade. 
For  several  years,  however,  the  colony  was  hardly  more 
than  self-sustaining.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  relished,  no 
more  than  the  "  vagabond  gentlemen  "  of  Virginia,  toil 
that  did  not  result  in  immediate  personal  gain.  In  1624 
the  scheme  was  abandoned,  and  every  man  was  gi\en  one 
acre  of  land  where  he  might  "  set  corn  for  his  own  partic- 
ular." Thereafter  there  was  [)leniy  of  food;  but  the 
adventurers  wanted  marketable  goods,  and  their  exactions 
proved  so  annoying  to  the  planters  that  the  agreement 
was  dissolved  (1627).  The  colony  undertook  to  buy  up 
the  interests  of  the  stockholders  for  £1800  to  be  paid  in 
yearly  installments  of  £200  each.  Certain  leading  men, 
Bradford,  Winslow,  Standish,  Brewster,  and  others,  be- 
came responsible  for  the  fulfillment  of  this  pledge. 

lii  the  case  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  the  ad- 
veiiiurers  went  in  person  to  America,  carrying  their  charter 
with  them,  and  thus  the  association  became  idcntif  ed  with 


Osgood, 
I,  I't.  I, 
Ch.  V. 

Tyler, 
Ch.  IX,  X. 


Bradford, 
History  "of 
Plimoth 
Plantation," 
56-58,  162- 
166,  176-178. 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
Slates, 
I,  33-35. 


Osgood. 
I,  141-152. 


Vi'''^^.^^IM- 


rt 


Tyler, 

Ch.  XI,  XII. 

Egleston, 
Land  System 
of  New 
England 
Colonies. 


Tyler, 
Ch.  XIV. 
XV. 


Lucas, 
87-123. 


Osgood. 
II.  Pt.  Ill, 
Ch.  I. 


28        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  colony.  Ever>'  stockholder  was  entitled  to  a  voice  in 
the  management  of  the  company's  affairs  and  attended  in 
person  the  stockholders'  meeting,  known  as  the  General 
Court,  until  the  increase  in  the  number  of  settlements 
necessitated  the  election  of  representatives.  The  charter 
secured  a  grant  of  land  extending  from  the  Merrimac 
River  to  the  Plymouth  line, and  from  "  sea  to  sea."  Within 
this  territory  new  colonies  were  planted  from  time  to  time 
on  lands  granted  free  of  charge  by  the  General  Court. 
Ipswich,  Newbury,  Charlestown,  Dedham,  and  the  Con- 
necticut River  towns,  Hadley,  Hatfield,  and  Northampton, 
were  offshoots  from  the  parent  colony  and  followed  each 
in  turn  the  same  general  plan.  The  settlers  joined  forces 
for  the  prosecution  of  undertakings  that  were  too  great 
for  individual  initiative,  such  as  the  clearing  of  the  forest, 
the  cultivation  of  the  first  crops,  the  putting  up  of  houses, 
barns,  fences,  sawmills,  gristmills,  etc.,  and  as  soon  as 
practicable  each  of  the  proprietors  in  the  common  lands 
was  assigned  his  portion  and  proceeded  to  cultivate  on  his 
own  account.  This  was  not  communism  but  cooperation. 
Providence  Plantations  and  the  Connecticut  towns  were 
also  independent  ventures  financed  by  the  planters  them- 
selves. Being  under  no  obligation  to  pay  tribute  to  a  body 
of  adventurers  in  England,  the  colonies  grew  rapidly  in 
population  and  wealth.  By  1700  New  England,  despite 
her  natural  disadvantages,  was  the  most  densely  settled 
province  in  America. 

Proprietary  Grants.  —  It  was  not  unusual  for  private 
persons  with  sufikient  means  to  secure  a  grant  of  land  and 
undertake  the  planting  of  a  colony  as  one  might  set  about 
the  cultivation  of  a  distant  estate.  Such  colonial  enter- 
prises were  feudal  in  character.  The  undertaker  owned  the 
land  and  met  the  expenses  of  the  shiploads  of  laborers  sent 
out  to  develop  its  resources  and  was,  in  consequence, 
entitled  to  whatever  revenues  in  the  way  of  rents,  and 
receipts  from  mines  or  from  customs  duties  might  accrue. 
Sir  Fernando  Gorges,  a  friend  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh, 
despairing  of  success  through  company  management,  se- 


ll  I 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  29 

cured,  together  with  John  Mason,  another  member  of  the 
Council,  the  Laconia  grant  (1623).    The  Council  bestowed 
upon  these  gentlemen  the  exclusive  right  to  plant  settle- 
ments along  the  coast  between  the  Kennebec  and  Merrimac 
rivers  and  the  monopoly  of  fisheries  and  trade.    A  fishing 
station  was  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua 
River,  and  salt  works  were  there  set  up.    Salt,  dried  fish 
furs  secured  in  trade  with  the  Indians,  clapboards  and 
pipestaves,  made  up  the  returns  from  this  venture;   but 
the  cost  of  maintaining  the  colony  exceeded  the  income. 
The  workmen  sent  out  were  fishmongers  from  Billingsgate 
"  hired  at  extreme  rates,"  a  thriftless  and  lawless  crew 
who  hved  extravagantly  and  worked  only  under  compulsion! 
In  1629  the  grant  was  di\ided.  Gorges  acquiring  control 
of  the  terntory  between  the  Piscataqua  and  the  Kennebec 
under  the  title  of  Lord  Proprietor  of  Maine,  and  the  lands 
south  of  the  Piscataqua  being  awarded  to  Mason.    Neither 
proprietor  did  much  toward  the  actual  colonization  of  his 
territory. 

In  1632  the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  who  as  member  of 
the  London  Company  had  made  a  futile  attempt  to  found 
a  colony  in  Virginia,  obtained  from  the  king  a  charter 
making  him  sole  proprietor  of  the  territory  lying  between 
the  Potomac  River  and  the  fortieth  parallel.  His  son 
Cecil  succeeded  to  the  title  that  same  year  and  berame 
Lord  Proprietor  of  Maryland.  Twenty  gentlemen  and 
three  hundred  laboring  men,  well  stocked  with  provisions 
undertook  the  first  settlement  in  1633.  Lord  Baltimore 
gave  careful  attention  to  the  welfare  of  his  colony  and 
expended  £20,000  out  of  his  own  purse  in  forwarding 
supplies.  The  climate  was  genial  and  the  soil  rich.  The 
cultivators  were  soon  able  to  send  corn  to  New  England 
in  exchange  for  salt  fish,  and  the  hogs  and  cattle  procured 
from  Virginia  flourished.  Religious  toleration  offset  the 
(1i!^advantages  of  feudal  government  in  the  minds  of  Roman 
tathohcs,  Quakers,  and  other  dissentcn;,  for  whom  there 
was  no  place  in  Old  or  New  England,  and  the  colony  was 
augmented  by  self-supporting  emigrants. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
III,  295-310, 
35(6-330,  366, 
367. 

V 

i  ^ 

1  ■ 

Osgood, 
I,  Pt.  II, 
Ch.IX. 

^ 

Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
ni.  517-525- 

Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

I,  Ch.  VIII; 

II.  Ch.  XIII. 


Tyler, 
Ch.VII.VIlI. 


Andrews, 
Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.  IX,  X. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
V,  Ch.  V. 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
ami  Her 
Neighbors, 
II,  Ch.  XV. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
111,431-422- 

Andrews, 
Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ornmiMit, 
Ch.  V.  VI. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
.•\mcrica, 
Hi,  4ii  44Q 


30        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

A  batch  of  proprietaries  dates  from  the  Restoration. 
Charles  II  was  bent  on  asserting  the  royal  prerogative 
not  only  in  England  but  in  America  as  well.   The  unclaimed 
territory  afforded  opportunity  for  rewarding   his  friends 
and  supporters,  and   he  gave  out  patents  with  a  lavish 
hand.     The  coast  country  south  of  Virginia  to  the  twenty- 
ninth  parallel  was  granted  to  a  group  of  loyal  noblemen, 
the  Eari  of  Clarendon,  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  Lord  John 
Berkeley,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  Sir  John   Carteret,  and 
others  (1668).     These  gentlemen,  with  the  assistance  of 
John  Locke,  the  philosopher,  proceeded  to  draw  up  a 
feudal  form  of  government  for  the  Card  mas  while  promis- 
ing liberal  terms  in  the  way  of   lands,  trade  privileges, 
and  religious  freedom  to  voluntary  immigrants.      Some 
persecuted  Quakers  did  indeed  move  across  the  Virginia 
boundary,  and  enterprising  Yankees  from  Massachusetts 
came  down  to  prosecute  trade,  but  the  government  of 
the  proprietors  was  so  tyrannical  and  inefficient  that  there 
was  no  security  for  life  or  property.     The  Carolinas  did 
not  prosper  until  a  stable  crown  government  was  estab- 
lished (1720). 

In  1664  England's  shadowy  title  to  the  Hudson  River 
territory  was  \estccl  in  the  Duke  of  York  by  charter  from 
the  king.  The  fleet  sent  to  besiege  New  Amsterdam  had 
little  difficulty  in  enforcing  the  claim,  and  New  Netheriand 
became  New  York.  NicoUs,  the  governor,  sent  out  to 
represent  the  royal  proprietor,  made  inquiry  into  the  laws 
that  had  been  adopted  by  the  New  England  colomsts  and 
modeled  his  government  thereon.  The  Dutch  settlers 
were  glad  to  remain  under  the  liberal  English  rule,  and  Con- 
necticut farmers  came  in  to  take  up  the  fruitful  lands  on 

Long  Island. 

The  fertile  stretch  of  territory  between  the  Delwarc 
River  and  the  sea,  the  Duke  of  York  sold  (1664)  to  his 
friends.  Lord  Berkelev  and  the  Carterets.  In  the  Jerseys, 
^-  jp  ^he  Carolin.Ti,  the  proprietors,  lacking  funds  with 
which  to  stock  a  colony,  offered  liberal  terms  to  settlers 
who  should  meet  their  own  e.xpenses.    The   vacant  land 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonisation  31 


was  quickly  taken  up  by  English,  Dutch,  and  Fjwedish 
farmers. 

Very  different  in  origin  were  the  last  two  proprietorships. 
In  1 68 1  the  unoccupied  land  west  of  the  Delaware  River 
and  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-second  parallels  was 
granted  by  the  spendthrift  Charles  II,  in  satisfaction  of 
an  old  debt,  to  William  Penn,  the  Quaker  philanthropist. 
In  this  case  the  proprietor  came  in  person  to  America. 
He  refused  to  establish  a  trade  monopoly,  considering  the 
prosperity  of  the  colony  more  important  l>an  money 
gain.  "  I  am  day  and  night  spending  my  life,  my  time, 
my  money,  and  am  not  a  sixpence  enriched  by  this  great- 
ness. .  .  .  Had  I  sought  greatness,  I  had  stayed  at  home." 
Representative  government,  liberal  laws,  and  full  owner- 
ship in  the  soil  proved  adequate  inducements  to  immi- 
grants. The  City  of  Brotherly  Love  sprang  up  at  the 
junction  of  the  Delaware  and  Schuylkill,  a  location  selected 
by  the  wise  })roprietor  as  suitable  "  for  health  and  navi- 
gation." 

Fifty  years  later  the  part  of  Carolina  that  lies  between 
the  Sa\annah  and  Allamaha  rivers,  having  been  sur- 
rendered to  the  Crown  by  the  original  proprietors,  was 
Sranted  by  George  I  to  a  group  of  philanthropists  who 
proposed  to  give  opportunity  to  prisoners  for  debt  to 
make  a  fresh  start  in  life.  Oglethorpe  and  his  associates 
were  constituted  "  trustees  for  establishing  the  colony  of 
Georgia  "  and  were  made  responsible  for  the  conduct  of 
its  affairs  for  a  term  of  twenty-one  years.  A  coqwration 
was  organized  for  the  financing  of  this  latest  colony,  but 
with  no  thought  of  gain.  Its  stock  was  subscribed  by 
benevolent  individuals,  churches,  and  trade  guilds,  while 
Pariiament  appropriated  £10,000  toward  the  humane 
enterprise.  The  colonists  were  brought  over  at  the  ex- 
pense "'  the  corporation  and  provided  for  during  the 
initial  v  rs  until  they  had  secured  a  firm  footing.  In 
I'j'.i   Georgia  l>ecame  a  crown  province. 

The  success  of  the  proprietary  colonies  varied  with  the 
wisdom  and  zeal  of  the  persons  resiMjnsible  for  their  man- 


Andrews, 

Colonial 
Sclf-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.VII.VIII 

Fiske, 
The  Dutch 
and  Quaker 
Colonies, 
II,  Ch.  XII, 
XVI. 

Andrews, 

Colonial 

Self-Gov- 

emment, 

Ch.XI.XII. 

Buell, 

William 

Penn. 

Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
III,  476-495- 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
V,  ibi-i<)i. 

Greene, 
Provincial 
America, 
Ch.  XV. 


32        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

agement.  These  experiments,  no  less  than  the  chartered 
companies,  proved  that  no  money  return  could  be  ex- 
pected from  American  investments  and  that  the  economic 
advantages  to  be  derived  from  colonies  were  remote  and 
indirect.  All  the  proprietary  rights  except  those  of  the 
Penns  and  the  Calverts  had  lapsed  to  the  Crown  before 
the  Revolution,  and  the  several  governments  were  ad- 
ministered by  royal  appointees  and  assemblies  represent- 
ing the  interests  of  the  colonists. 


Osgood, 
I.  73-79- 


Bruce, 
Economic 
History  of 
Virginia, 
I,  2fj,  502- 
506. 


Land  Tenure 

The  prime  concern  with  the  founders  of  a  colony,  whether 
chartered  company,  proprietor,  or  association  of  ad- 
venturers, was  to  induce  people  to  migrate  to  America; 
for  without  laborers  nothing  of  commercial  value  could  be 
produced.  The  managers  of  the  several  colonial  enter- 
prises, however  aristocratic  their  original  plans,  became 
convinced  by  actual  experiment  that  it  was  good  policy 
to  put  bona  fide  settlers  in  immediate  possession  of  the 
land.  Nothing  short  of  actual  ownership  in  the  soil 
suflSced  to  attract  and  hold  immigrants. 

In  Virginia,  for  example,  the  purpose  of  the  company 
to  retain  possession  of  the  land  and  get  it  cultivated  by 
laborers  or  tenants  gave  way  before  the  necessity  of  offer- 
ing the  highest  inducement  to  effective  tillage.  Sir  Thomas 
Dale  assigned  a  three-acre  garden  lot  to  each  of  the  com- 
pany's servants  and  offered  twelve  acres  of  uncleared  land 
to  all  newcomers ;  but  the  cultivators  remained  mere 
tenants  at  will.  The  House  of  Burgesses  in  its  nrst  session 
(1619)  demanded  that  the  colonists  be  put  in  full  posses- 
sion of  these  lands,  and  that  every  resident  shareholder  be 
allotted  one  hunrlred  acres  in  fee  simple  for  each  share 
(£12  los.)  he  had  contributed  to  the  common  stock,  and 
this  was  conceded.  Associations  of  adventurers  proposing 
to  go  in  perhoii  l(»  VirRinia  secured  grants  of  land  from  the 
London  Company  until  1624,  and,  after  that  "  hot-bed 
of  sedition  "  forfeited  its  charter  and  Virginia  became  a 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonisation  33 


royal  province,  from  the  Crown  direct.  Since  each  stock- 
holder was  entitled  to  one  hundred  acres  in  the  first 
"  division  "  and  one  hundred  more  when  the  grant  had 
been  "  seated,"  these  associations  came  into  possession  of 
great  tracts  of  land.  John  Martin,  one  of  the  first  council- 
lors, who  organized  the  company  that  settled  Martin's 
Hundred  on  the  James  River,  secured  for  himself  and 
associates  eighty  thousand  acres.  Other  grants  hardly 
less  extensive  were  assigned  to  the  planters  of  Smith's 
Hundred,  Southampton  Hundred,  Bermuda  Hundred,  etc. 
Individual  planters  might  increase  their  estates  by  the 
title  known  as  "  head  right."  Every  shareholder  who  met 
the  cost  of  importing  an  able-bodied  laborer,  man  or 
woman,  was  entitled  to  fifty  acres  in  the  first  division 
and  fifty  additional  in  the  second.  The  right  was  soon 
extended  to  all  residents  of  Virginia  and  became  the  usual 
method  of  acquiring  land.  Since  the  transportation  charges 
amounted  to  £6,  the  land  came  to  little  more  than  a 
shilling  an  acre.  Moreover,  the  imported  laborer  was  usu- 
ally under  contract  to  repay  the  passage  money  in  service. 
Thus,  by  a  moderate  outlay,  the  planter  secured  an  estate 
and  the  hands  with  which  to  till  it.  The  custom  was  ad- 
mirably suited  to  a  country  where  land  was  abundant 
and  labor  scarce,  but  it  was  susceptible  of  abuse.  Un- 
scrupulous planters  obtained  grants  in  consideration  of 
passage  money  paid  for  members  of  their  families  or  for 
their  own  journeys  to  and  from  England.  The  land  oflSces 
Rrew  corrupt,  and  soon  it  was  not  required  to  bring  evi- 
dence of  passage  paid.  A  small  fee  handed  to  the  secretary 
insured  the  solicited  grant  with  no  questions  asked.  This 
practice  became  so  general  that  it  was  finally  (1705) 
sanctioned  by  law.  Fifty  acres  might  be  had  for  five 
shillings,  on  condition  that  a  house  be  built  and  three  acres 
planted  within  three  years  and  a  suitable  number  of  cattle 
maintained.  The  result  was  a  significant  increase  in  the 
size  of  the  holdings.  In  1625  a  shareholder  was  entitled 
to  one  hundred  acres  and  had  expectations  of  a  second 
hundred,  while  at  the  close  of  the  century  the  average  size 


Bruce,  1, 
S12-S18. 

Osgood, 
II,  Pt.  Ill, 
Ch  II. 


Beverley, 
History  of 
Virginia, 
Bk.  IV, 
Ch.  XII. 


Bruce, 
I.  519-564. 


34        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


2  e »  rf 

g  c  -'  3  £  e  o 


K   >,  o    a  55   «   o 


8  Es I 


S  o  3  If  » 


;l 


<i? 


-"i 


%  III  ^- 


S^ 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  35 


of  a  Virginia  estate  was  seven  hundred  acres,  and  many 
a  planter  owned  thousands.  The  king  was  recognized 
as  the  ultimate  proprietor  of  all  lands  in  the  Virginia 
colony,  and  the  immediate  owners  paid  a  quitrent  of  a 
farthing  an  acre.  This  was  an  important  source  of  revenue 
urgently  maintained  by  the  crown  officers  and  as  urgently 
protested  by  the  planters. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  land  system  of  Virginia  was 
that  of  New  England  colonies.  The  people  who  put  their 
lives  into  the  planting  of  Plymouth  colony  were  credited 
with  a  share  in  the  venture.  Each  colonist,  whether  man, 
woman,  or  child,  free  citizen  or  servant,  was  entitled  to 
a  £10  share  of  stock,  and  every  shareholder  received  full 
possession  of  twenty  acres  of  land  when  the  first  division 
was  made.  At  Salem  each  of  the  original  settlers  was 
entitled  to  a  house  lot  in  the  village,  ten  acres  of  arable 
land,  and  rights  of  pasturage  and  mowing  in  the  meadows 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  cattle  owned.  The  pro- 
jectors of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  agreed  that  every 
adventurer  who  went  to  the  settlement  or  sent  others  at 
his  own  charge,  was  to  have  fifty  acres  for  each  passage 
paid.  This  provision  did  not  lead  to  the  building  up  of 
great  estates,  as  in  Virginia,  because  the  arable  lands  were 
limited  in  area  and  there  were  always  newcomers  to  pro- 
\ide  for.  Soil  and  climate,  moreover,  were  not  such  as  to 
encourage  farming  on  a  large  scale.  The  settlers  preferred 
to  live  near  together,  and  the  house  lots  were  usually 
assigned  along  a  single  street  with  garden  ground  at  the 
back,  while  the  arable,  meadow,  and  wood  land  was  not 
divided  until  the  community  grew  strong  enough  to  build 
fences  and  to  protect  distant  fields  against  Indian  raids. 
In  all  the  settlements  made  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Company  this  plan  was  followed, 
though  the  size  of  the  allotments  varied  with  the  amount 
of  land  at  the  disposal  of  the  town  and  the  number  of 
l)roprietors  among  whom  it  was  to  be  divided.  Settlers 
in  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire  adopted 
the  Massachusetts  model.     The  planters  of  New  England 


Ripley, 
Financial 
History  of 
Virginia, 
Ch.  II. 


Bradford, 

56-58, 
163-166. 

Works  of 
Captain 
John  Smith, 
782-784. 

Adams, 
VillaRc 
Communities 
of  Cape  Ann 
and  Salem. 


Osgood, 
I,  I't.  II, 
Ch.  XI. 


36        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Doc.  Hist, 
of  New  York, 
I  377-38g ; 
III,  622-627. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  104,  109, 
118-120; 
128,  129. 


Osgood, 

n.  Pt.  HI, 

Ch.  II. 


were  everywhere  small  farmers,  dwelling  near  together  in 
villages  or  towns,  each  possessing  his  land  in  fee  simple 
and  cultivating  it  with  his  own  hands.  Taxes  sufficient 
to  meet  local  expenses  were  assessed  by  the  town  authorities, 
but  nothing  in  the  nature  of  quitrent  was  required  by  the 
General  Court. 

In  the  royal  province  of  New  York,  the  feudal  form  of 
land  tenure  introduced  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Com- 
pany influenced  later  developments.  Great  estates  such 
as  Rennslaervyck  persisted  under  the  English  rule.  Some 
of  the  royal  governors  granted  tracts  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  acres  to  favored  individuals,  and  feudal  properties 
like  Livingston  Manor  were  created.  The  practice  was 
protested,  since  it  seriously  retarded  the  settlement  of 
the  province.  "  The  Grantees  themselves  are  not,  nor  never 
were  in  a  Capacity  to  improve  such  large  Tracts,  and  other 
People  will  not  become  their  Vassals  or  Tenants  for  one 
great  reason  as  peoples  (the  better  sort  especially)  leaving 
their  native  Country,  was  to  avoid  the  dependence  on  land- 
lords, and  to  enjoy  lands  in  fee  to  descend  to  their  posterity 
that  their  children  may  reap  the  benefit  of  their  labor  and 
Industry."  The  development  of  the  province  was  retarded, 
since  immigrants  preferred  going  to  New  England,  where 
lands  might  be  had  in  fee  simple  and  without  charge. 
When,  by  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  (1768),  the  Mohawk 
Valley  was  purchased  of  the  Iroquois  Confederacy,  land 
offices  were  opened  and  farms  were  made  over  in  fee  simple 
to  actual  settlers  on  the  easy  condition  that  five  acres  out 
of  fifty  should  be  cleared  within  three  years. 

The  proprietors  held  their  respective  territories  as  so 
many  feudal  estates  from  which  they  were  at  liberty  to 
grant,  sell,  or  lease  lands  as  might  best  suit  their  purposes. 
Even  William  Penn  had  in  mind  an  aristocratic  form  of 
land  tenure.  He  offered  to  sell  five-thousand-acre  tracts 
for  £100,  allowing  fifty  acres  free  for  each  servant  imported, 
but  reserved  a  quitrent  of  one  shilling  per  hundred  acres. 
A  tract  of  five  hundred  acres  was  awarded  to  every  man 
who  should  transport  and  "  seat  "  his  family  at  his  own 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  37 


charge.  Here  was  abundant  opportunUy  for  the  acqui- 
sition of  large  estates,  but  here,  as  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  York,  physical  conditions  were  not  favorable  to  great 
plantations,  for  soil  and  climate  necessitated  a  varied  and 
intensive  agriculture.  Large  tracts  of  land  were  bought 
by  groups  of  settlers,  English,  Welsh,  or  German,  and  then 
subdivided  among  the  partners  to  the  purchase.  The 
result  was  a  series  of  agricultural  communities  of  an  es- 
pecially democratic  type. 

With  a  view  to  attracting  settlers,  the  proprietors  of 
the  Jerseys  offered  to  every  man  who,  already  equipped 
with  musket  and  ammunition  and  six  months'  provisions, 
should  meet  the  governor  on  his  arrival,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  acres  of  land,  and  a  like  amount  for  each  servant  or 
slave  imported  and  similarly  provided  at  his  own  expense, 
while  the  allowance  for  women  was  seventy-five  acres. 
This  offer  drew  settlers  from  the  adjacent  colony  of  New 
York.  "  What  man,"  wrote  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  "  will 
be  such  a  fool  as  to  become  a  base  tenant  to  .  .  ,  Mr. 
Livingston  .  .  .  when  for  crossing  Hudson's  River  that  man 
can  for  a  song  purchase  a  good  freehold  in  the  Jerseys?  " 
The  colonial  population  of  New  Jersey  was  almost  wholly 
made  up  of  small  farmers  and  their  families. 

South  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  both  physical  con- 
ditions and  the  terms  on  which  land  was  granted  tended  to 
develop  large  estates.  The  soil  of  the  coastal  plain  lay 
in  broad  fertile  tracts,  and  the  climate  was  suited  to  staple 
crops,  such  as  corn,  tobacco,  rice,  and  cotton.  There  was 
considerable  economy  in  cultivation  on  a  large  scale,  and 
the  small  farmer  was  at  a  disadvantage.  In  the  Conditions 
of  Plantations  (1636)  Lord  Baltimore  offered  each  ad- 
\  enturer  who  should  transport  five  settlers  a  grant  of  one 
thousand  acres  in  perpetuity,  subject  only  to  a  quitrent 
of  20s.  per  year.  Adventurers  bringing  over  a  greater 
number  of  laborers,  especially  when  the  men  were  "  artifi- 
cers, workm(  n,  and  other  useful  persons,''  received  larger 
praiits,  so  that  some  of  these  estates  amounted  to  ten  or 
fifteen  thousand  acres.     The  intention  of  the  proprietor 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  192,  196, 
198. 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
IV,  791. 


WJlhelm. 
Local 

Institutions 
of  Maryland, 
7-38. 


i    1 

1         j 

w 

1    ^ 

\ 

ft- 

1  ■ 

38        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

was  to  create  manors  after  the  mediaeval  type.  Each 
adventurer  sublet  his  lands  to  the  men  whom  he  brought 
over,  and  these,  like  feudal  dependents,  paid  rent  in  money 
or  produce  and  presented  themselves  at  the  call  of  the 
lord  of  the  manor  fully  equipped  with  muskets,  ponder, 
and  bullets  for  service  against  the  Indians.  Sixty  such 
manors  of  three  thousand  acres  each  were  established  by 
1676.  The  proprietor  also  made  provision  for  peasant 
farmers  in  freehold  grants.  To  any  man  who  should  meet 
the  cost  of  transporting  his  family  to  Maryland  was  as- 
signed one  hundred  acres  for  himself,  for  his  wife,  and  for 
each  servant  imported,  and  fifty  acres  for  each  child. 
Such  freemen  were  to  pay  rent  at  the  rate  of  ten  pounds 
of  wheat  for  every  fifty  acres  taken  up.  In  the  fertile 
lowlands  the  great  estate  proved  so  profitable  that  farmers 
who  took  up  land  on  these  terms  were  crowded  out. 

In  the  Great  Deed  of  Grant  issued  by  the  proprietors 
of  Carolina  (1668)  every  freeman  settling  in  the  country 
was  otTered  one  hundred  acres  for  himself,  his  wife,  each 
child,  and  for  every  man-servant  imported,  and  fifty  acres 
for  each  woman  servant,  subject  to  a  quitrent  charge  of 
half-penny  per  acre.  The  philanthropic  directors  of  the 
Georgia  colony  assigned  to  each  settler  brought  over  fifty 
acres  of  land  and  tools  with  which  to  cultivate  it.  In 
both  of  these  colonies  the  intention  of  the  projectors  had 
been  to  induce  farmers  to  take  up  the  land  in  tracts  com- 
mensurate with  their  working  force.  The  influence  of 
climate  and  agricultural  conditions  proved  more  potent 
than  their  carefully  devised  plans.  The  government  was 
obliged  to  concede  the  Virginia  method  of  acquiring  land, 
and  great  estates  secured  by  head  right  became  the  rule 
throughout  the  Southern  colonies. 


The  Colonists 

The  subduing  of  the  wilderness  was  no  pastime.  Stren- 
uous labor  was  required  to  fell  the  trees,  plow  lands  beset 
with  stumps  and  stones,  protect  growing  crops  against 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  39 


weeds  and  cattle,  build  houses  and  bams,  cut  roads  through 
the  forests,  and  defend  the  little  settlements  against  hostile 
Indians.  Only  men  of  strength,  courage,  and  industry 
could  succeed. 

The  fifty  spendt'  ift  gentlemen  who  came  to  Jamestown 
with  Captain  Newport  knew  nothing  of  agriculture  or  of 
any  other  useful  art.  They  had  no  incUnation  to  the 
prosaic  task  of  providing  food  and  shelter,  and  were  in- 
fatuated with  the  hope  of  finding  some  easier  road  to  fortune. 
There  was  among  them,  says  Captain  John  Smith,  "  no 
talke,  no  hope,  nor  worke,  but  dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine 
gold,  load  gold."  Even  when  the  shipload  of  shining  earth 
sent  over  to  England  was  declared  to  be  worthless,  and  the 
"  gold-showing  mountains  "  proved  to  be  hills  of  common 
red  clay,  it  was  not  easy  to  induce  the  visionary  adventurers 
to  undertake  useful  employments.  This  futile  e.xperi- 
ment  proved  the  necessity  of  sending  out  men  who  were 
able  and  willing  to  labor  with  hand  or  brain.  In  1610 
the  Council  in  Virginia  reported  to  the  London  Company 
that  they  must  have  at  least  a  year's  provisions  supplied 
them  and  lal)orers  adequate  to  this  difficult  business. 
None  but  ''  honest,  sufficient  artificers,  as  carpenters, 
smiths,  coopers,  fishermen,  brickmen,  and  such  Hke,"  were 
desired. 

The  men  who  settled  Plymouth  suffered  terribly  in  their 
first  winter.  Half  of  their  number  died  of  cold  and  scurx-y 
—  the  major  part  adult  men.  When  the  spring  came  they 
set  about  planting  corn,  catching  fish,  and  building  houses 
that  they  might  be  well  provided  against  the  second  winter. 
The  Pilgrims  were  men  of  the  middle  and  artisan  classes, 
accustomed  to  work,  and,  though  they  knew  little  of 
agriculture,  they  readily  adapted  themselves  to  the  new- 
conditions.  Moreover,  they  had  come  to  America  in  no 
ventur'  ome  spirit.  Driven  from  England  by  religious 
intolerance,  they  brought  their  wives  and  children  and 
household  goods  with  full  determination  to  build  homes 
in  the  New  World. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  sober  industry  of  the  Pil- 


Works  of 
Captain 
John  Smith, 
104. 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I,  410,  439. 


Bradford, 
III,  121,  137, 
151.  152. 


Sfl 


40        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Osgood, 
I,  II4-IJJ. 

Bradford, 

J37-ISI. 
154-161. 


Bradford, 
178-184. 


Bradford, 

i83-2QJ. 


grims  and  their  eventual  success  showed  the  braggart 
thriftlessness  of  three  neighboring  settlements,  Thomas 
Weston,  one  of  the  merchant  adventurers  of  the  Council 
for  New  England,  equipped  a  colony  on  his  own  account, 
having  secured  a  patent  to  lands  in  Massachusetts  Bay. 
A  settlement  was  attempted  at  Weymouth  (1622),  but 
the  men  sent  over  were  an  "  unruly  company  "  who  "  spent 
excessively  "  while  the  ship's  stores  lasted  and  then  begged 
and  stole  from  the  Indians  until  the  exasperated  savages 
determined  to  destroy  the  camp.  The  settlement  was 
only  saved  from  annihilation  by  Captain  Miles  Standish 
of  Plymouth,  who  marched  to  Weymouth  with  his  little 
force,  overawed  the  Indians,  and  enabled  the  disheartened 
rowdies  to  get  away.  Weston's  colonists  had  laugh  <\  at 
the  straits  to  which  they  saw  the  Pilgrims  reduced,  L  »di- 
capped  as  they  were  by  women  and  children,  and  had 
boasted  of  their  own  advantage  in  being  all  lusty  men. 
They  did  not  understand  how  essential  to  a  settlement  was 
the  steadying  responsibility  of  the  family  claim. 

Equally  unfortunate  was  the  enterprise  of  Robert  Gor- 
ges, who  came  to  Weymouth  in  the  following  year.  Sir 
Fernando  sent  h-s  younger  son  clothed  with  great  authority. 
He  had  received  an  extensive  grant  of  land  and  the  com- 
mission of  governor-general  for  all  New  England,  but  a 
year's  experience  of  the  hardships  of  pioneer  life  dis- 
couraged this  luxurious  gentleman.  "  Not  finding  the 
state  of  things  hear  to  answer  his  quallitie  &  condition," 
says  Bradford,  he  returned  to  England  in  disgust.  No 
less  disheartening  was  the  attempt  of  another  repre- 
sentative of  Sir  Fernando,  Thomas  Morton  "  of  ClifTord's 
Inn,  Gent."  to  found  a  colony  at  Mount  WoUaston.  His 
people  were  runaway  servants  and  other  ne'er-do-weels, 
who  spent  their  time  in  drinking  and  riot  to  the  great  an- 
noyance of  the  men  of  Plymouth.  The  merrymakers  at 
Merrymount  may  not  have  been  so  disreputable  as  the 
Pilgrims  believed,  but  their  practice  of  selling  rum  and 
firearms  to  the  Indians  menaced  the  safety  of  all  the 
neighboring  settlements.     Plymouth  was  constrained  to 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  41 

send  her  little  army  and  "  prevent  the  growth  of  this 
mischief,"  so  that  Morton  was  arrested  and  sent  back  to 
England  and  his  dissolute  company  dispersed.  John  White,  ^J^jJ^j'^j^^^^^^,^ 
the  Dorchester  clergyman  who  was  laying  wise  plans  for  p,^^^ 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  pointed  out  that  such 
"  rude  and  ungovernable  persons,  the  very  scum  of  the 
land,  were  unfit  instruments  for  the  planting  of  a  com- 
monwealth." 

Lord  Bacon,  who  was  deeply  interested  in  the  London  Bacon's 
Company's  experiment,  echoed  this  protest  in  his  Essay  Works^ 
on  Plantations  (1625).  "  It  is  a  shameful  and  unblessed 
thing  to  take  the  scum  of  people,  and  wicked  and  con- 
demned men,  to  be  the  people  with  whom  you  plant ;  and 
not  only  so  but  it  spoileth  the  plantation ;  for  they  will 
ever  live  like  rogues,  and  not  fall  to  work,  but  be  lazy,  and 
do  mischief,  and  spend  victuals,  and  be  quickly  weary, 
and  then  certify  over  to  their  country  to  the  discredit  of 
the  plantation.  The  people  wherewith  you  plant  ought 
to  be  gardeners,  plowmen,  laborers,  smiths,  carpenters, 
joiners,  fishermen,  fowlers,  with  some  few  apothecaries, 
surgeons,  cooks,  and  bakers." 


The  Labor  Supply 

The  most  serious  problem  encountered  by  landowners  Weeden, 
was  the  difficulty  of  securing  a  sufficient  force  of  laborers,   f,^^^^^ 
.\ble-bodied  men  who  would  work  for  hire  were  scarce  New 
in  the  colonies,  and  wages  were  consequently  high.    The  Kn^hnd. 
attempt  to  regulate  wages,  in  accordance  with  English    '"*   ^'■ 
precedent,   failed  utterly.      The  statute  passed  by  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  in   1630,  for  example, 
prescribing  25.  a  day  for  skilled  artisans,  was  frequently 
revised  and  finally  rejiealed.    The  natives  were  lazy,  at 
least  in  the  estimation  of  the  whites,  and  showed  no  apti- 
tude for  field  work.    The  attempts  made  to  force  this  non- 
industrial  people  to  manual  labor  were  unsuccessful,  for 
the  captives  sickened  and  died.     In  England,  on  the  other 
hand,  artisans  and  field  laljorers  were  falling  into  poverty 


42        ItuUis trial  History  of  the  United  States 


|i  9    i 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 

I.  »S2.  3S». 
506 ;  II,  688. 


Bruce, 
I,  Ch.  IX. 


Bullagh. 
White 
Servitude 
in  Virginia. 


and  crime  for  lack  of  means  to  earn  an  honest  living,  and 
the  parish  officers  were  eager  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
paupers  and  dissolute  persons  with  whom  their  jails  and 
workhouses  were  filled.  It  was  thought  a  thrifty  and 
benevolent  scheme  to  send  this  surplus  population  to 
America.  The  London  Company  undertook  to  meet  half 
the  cost  of  transportation  and  maintenance  for  all  children 
sent  them  by  the  parish  authorities,  on  the  understanding 
that  they  were  bound  to  service  from  the  day  of  their 
arrival  in  Virginia  until  they  came  of  age.  The  Company 
undertook  to  provide  these  little  servants  with  food  and 
clothing  during  their  term  of  bondage,  to  teach  them  some 
trade,  and  to  assign  to  each  boy,  when  his  freedom  year 
arrived,  fifty  acres  of  land  to  cultivate,  a  cow,  seed  corn, 
tools,  and  firearms.  He  then  became  the  Company's 
tenant,  paying  one  half  the  produce  of  his  farm  for  seven 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  term  he  was  insured  full  posses- 
sion of  twenty-five  acres.  One  hundred  pauper  children 
were  sent  to  Virginia  from  the  city  of  London  in  1619  and 
one  hundred  more  in  1620. 

Indentured  Servants.  —  After  the  collapse  of  the  Com- 
pany, individual  planters  began  to  import  servants  on 
similar  terms.  A  written  contract  or  indenture  bound 
master  and  man  to  the  fulfillment  of  their  mutual  obliga- 
tions. The  term  varied  with  the  uge  of  the  servant;  if 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age  he  was  to  ser\'e  four  years, 
if  under  twelve,  seven.  For  persons  between  twelve  and 
twenty  the  usual  term  of  service  was  five  years.  \  law 
enacted  in  1666  made  the  general  requirement  of  five 
years'  service  from  |)ersons  imported  at  nineteen  years 
or  over,  while  servants  under  that  age  were  to  serve  until 
their  twenty-fourth  year.  Children  were  preterred  to 
adults  because  they  were  usually  more  teachable,  the  cost 
of  maintenance  was  less,  and  the  term  «)f  service  longer. 
Hundreds  of  these  unfortunates  were  indentured  by  their 
relatives,  or  transported  by  the  parish  guardians,  or  kid- 
napped by  the  agents  of  shipmasters  and  shipped  to  Vir- 
ginia to  be  bound  over  on  their  arrival  to  the  planter  who 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  43 


offered  most  for  their  services.  Fourteen  or  fifteen  hun- 
dred such  children  were  sent  over  in  1627  and  the  shameful 
trade  thrived  thereafter.  Restrictive  legislation  seemed 
futile.  In  1680  the  English  authorities  estimated  that 
some  ten  thousand  persons  were  each  year  "  spirited 
away  "  to  America  by  force  or  fraud. 

Of  the  adults  brought  over  many  were  criminals  whose 
death  sentence  had  been  commuted  to  a  term  of  service 
in  the  plantations.  The  Council  in  Virginia  early  pro- 
tested against  the  foisting  of  felons  on  that  colony,  and  a 
law  prohibiting  the  reception  of  such  persons  passed  the 
House  of  Burgesses  (1671)  and  was  approved  by  the  gov- 
ernor. Seven  years  later  tMs  law  was  set  aside  to  give 
opportunity  for  the  transportation  of  political  offenders. 
Shiploads  of  Irish  rebels  had  been  sent  to  America  during 
Cromwell's  occupation  of  Ireland,  and  Cavaliers  were 
transported  from  I\ngland  in  like  manner  for  their  cham- 
pionship of  the  Stuarts.  After  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II,  batches  of  Roundheads  were  sent  to  the  colonies  to 
1)0  sold  into  service.  Scotchmen  involved  in  the  insur- 
rection of  1678  and  the  English  farmers  and  laborers  who 
joined  in  Monmouth's  rebellion  were  nhr  transported  to 
America.  They  were  carried  to  the  Barbadoes  or  to  Jamaica 
or  to  any  coast  port  where  there  was  a  good  chance  of 
finding  a  purchaser,  but  the  greater  number  were  disposed 
of  in  the  Southern  colonies,  where  estates  were  cultivated 
on  a  large  scale.  On  the  little  New  England  farms  in- 
dentured servants  were  not  so  much  in  demand. 

The  law  did  what  it  c«)uld  to  protect  the  ser\ant  in  his 
rJKhts.  If  the  master  failed  to  provide  adequate  food 
and  lodging  or  treated  his  man  with  undue  harshness,  the 
latter  had  recourse  to  the  county  court,  and  the  commis- 
sioners were  authorized  t(»  annul  the  contract  if  the  master 
did  not  make  amends.  The  law  recjuired  that  in  case  of 
sickness  a  physician  should  be  furnished,  and  if  the  ser- 
-  a-U  became  jK^rmanrntiy  incapacitated  the  nia>ler  iuu>t 
still  provide  for  him  till  the  end  of  his  term ;  thereafter 
thf  parish  was  resjwnsible.    On  the  other  hand,  the  county 


McCormac, 
White 
Servitude 
in  Maryland. 


Bruce, 
II,  Ch.  X. 


Phillipii. 
i'lnntation 
ami  Frontict 
I.  JJ9-J75- 


"ill 


44        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Weld. 
Travels, 
I,  120-124. 

Eddis, 

Le.  *ers  from 

America, 

63-S9. 


Geiser, 
Rcdemption- 
ers  and 
Indentured 
Servants  in 
Pennsyl- 
vania. 


Bruce, 
II.  Ch.  XI. 


Weeden, 
II,  Ch.  XII. 


Beverley, 
Bk    !V, 
Ch.  X. 


officers  were  bound  to  assist  in  the  recapture  of  runaway 
servants.  Men,  boats,  and  horses  were  impressed  for  the 
search  until  the  fugitive  was  restored  to  his  master.  He 
was  then  obliged  to  serve  double  the  time  of  his  unexpired 
term  and  to  pay  the  costs  of  capture,  while  if  the  offense 
were  repeated  he  might  be  whipped  or  branded  in  the  cheek. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  moral  right  and  wrong 
of  this  labor  system,  its  economic  advantages  were  many. 
Laborers  were  transferred  from  the  place  where  they  were 
not  wanted  to  a  place  where  they  were  in  demand,  and  their 
passage  money  was  paid  by  an  employer  who  was  guaranteed 
against  loss  by  a  claim  of  from  five  to  ten  years  of  service. 
When  the  term  expired,  master  and  servant  presented 
themselves  at  the  county  court  and  a  certificate  of  emanci- 
pation was  made  out  and  duly  signed.  The  servant  was 
then  presented  with  ten  bushels  of  grain,  two  suits  of  clothes, 
firearms,  etc.,  sufficient  to  secure  him  against  want,  and 
the  emancipated  man  could  earn  good  wages  as  a  free 
laborer  or  he  might  even  acquire  land.  In  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  redemptioncrs  were  granted  fifty  and 
seventy-five  acres  to  cultivate  in  their  own  right. 

African  Slaves.  —  Toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  supply  of  servants  from  the  British  Isles  fell 
short,  and  laborers  were  provided  from  another  source. 
A  shipload  of  negroes,  captured  on  the  Gold  Coast ,  had 
been  brought  to  Jamestown  by  a  Dutch  trader  in  161Q 
as  a  business  venture.  The  Dutch  W^est  India  Company 
sent  other  shiploads  from  time  to  time,  but  they  found 
their  best  market  in  the  West  Indies.  There  were  only 
three  hundred  Africans  in  Virginia  in  1650  and  but  two 
thousand  in  167 1,  and  the  number  might  have  remained 
inconsiderable  had  not  an  English  commercial  corjiora- 
tion  —  the  Royal  African  Company,  chartered  in  i66j 
—  been  given  (16.S7)  exclusive  monopoly  of  trade  between 
the  Gold  Coast  and  the  British  colonies.  Under  the 
auspices  of  the  Duke  of  York,  the  commerce  in  slaves  was 
encouraged,  and  great  numbers  were  sent  to  the  Atlantic 
coast  for  sale. 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  45 


The  Africans  were  barbarians,  but  they  had  practiced 
agriculture  and  primitive  manufactures,  and  they  were 
physically  better  adapted  to  field  labor  in  a  hot  climate 
than  the  servants  imported  from  the  British  Isles.  It  was 
soon  apparent  that  the  slave  was  a  more  economical  in- 
vestment than  the  indentured  servant.  The  initial  cost 
was  greater.  The  passage  money  paid  to  secure  a  servant 
amounted  to  from  £6  to  £10,  while  the  price  of  a  slave 
varied  from  £10  to  £50 ;  but  the  servant  was  bound  for 
a  limited  term,  while  the  slave  was  bound  for  life.  His 
children,  moreover,  became  the  property  of  his  master. 
The  slave  was  fed  and  clothed  more  cheaply  than  the  ser- 
vant, for  there  was  no  contract,  and  the  slave  had  no 
standing  in  the  courts  against  his  master.  The  African 
had  less  skill  and  intelligence  than  the  white  servant,  but 
high-grade  labor  was  not  necessary  for  extensive  agriculture. 

Slaves  were  bought  and  sold  all  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 
They  were  less  in  demand  in  the  Northern  colonies  where 
more  intelligent  labor  was  required  and  where  the  climate 
was  too  severe  for  men  and  women  fresh  from  tropic  Africa. 
In  1721,  when  the  slave  trade  was  at  its  height,  there  were 
few  blacks  in  New  England ;  in  New  York,  the  number 
was  seven  thousand,  or  one  seventh  of  the  total  population ; 
in  Pennsylvania,  the  slave  population  made  up  one  thirteenth 
of  the  total;  in  Maryland  it  was  neariy  half,  in  Vi.ginia 
niori'  than  half,  in  North  Carolina  one  third,  while  in  South 
Carolina  the  blacks  outnumbered  the  whites  in  the  ratio 
of  four  to  three.  The  benevolent  projectors  of  the  Georgia 
colony  forbade  the  holding  of  slaves,  but  their  intentions 
were  o\  crniled  by  the  planters,  who  asserted  that  the  hot 
and  malarial  coast  country  could  not  be  cultivated  by 
Europeans.  George  Whitefield,  the  eminent  evangelist, 
su[)()orted  ihcir  |>etition  on  the  ground  that  slavery  was 
the  licst  means  to  raise  the  Africans  from  barbarism  to 
civilization.  The  blacks  did,  indeed,  learn  the  English 
ianKuage  and  adopt  the  Christian  religion,  and  they  were 
trained  to  useful  labor;  but  the  influence  of  the  system 
was  none  the  less  demoralizing  for  owner  and  slave.     The 


Washington, 
Story  of 
the  Negro, 
I,  Ch.  II, 
III,  IV. 


Steiner, 
History  of 
Slavery  in 
Connecticut, 
377-393- 

Kalm, 

Travels  into 

North 

America, 

I.  387-397- 

Bassett, 

Slavery  in 

North 

Carolina 

Colony. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  HiM. 
America, 
V.  .»76.  387- 


m 


46        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Phillips, 

II,  99-125. 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
V,  610. 


Bullock, 
Monetary 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
Pt.  I,  Ch.  III. 


Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
11-14. 

ERglcston, 
Commerce 
in  the 
Colonies. 


Ripley, 
Financial 
History  of 

Virginia, 
108-153. 


social  dangers  involved  in  bringing  thousands  of  untutored 
savages  of  a  wholly  alien  race  to  work  in  gangs  under  hired 
overseers  were  very  grave.  A  serious  slave  insurrection 
broke  out  in  South  Carolina  (i  721),  and  the  Board  of  Trade 
urged  the  governor  to  devise  some  law  for  encouraging 
the  importation  of  white  servants. 

The  Scarcity  of  Money 

Once  "  seated  "  upon  the  land  it  was  easy  for  an  in- 
dustrious community  to  provide  shelter  and  food  and 
coarse  clothing,  but  all  luxuries  and  many  of  the  necessities, 
such  as  iron  implements  and  other  manufactures,  must 
be  imported  from  across  the  water,  and  to  pay  for  such 
commodities  was  difficult.  Fortunate  was  the  colony  for 
whose  products  there  was  a  market  in  England.  Gold 
and  silver  coin  was  always  acceptable  to  foreign  creditors, 
but  of  this  there  was  little  in  circulation.  The  specie 
brought  over  by  incoming  colonists  was  soon  returned  in 
payment  of  debts,  and  there  was  as  yet  no  mining  of  the 
precious  metals.  The  main  source  of  supply  was  the 
Spanish  colonies,  notably  the  West  Indies,  whence  silver 
might  be  had  in  exchange  for  lumber  and  salt  fish.  Several 
of  the  colonial  governments  established  mints  in  the  hope 
of  providing  a  specie  currency,  and  for  thirty-si.x  years 
(1652-1688)  Massachusetts  coined  the"  pine-tree  "  shillings. 
They  contained  but  78  per  cent  of  the  silver  required  in 
an  English  shilling,  but  even  this  depreciated  coin  was 
exported. 

For  the  purpose  of  local  traffic  certain  staple  com- 
modities were  used  as  the  medium  of  exchange,  —  corn, 
cattle,  and  beaver  skins  in  the  Northern  coloniec,  tobacco 
in  V^irginia  and  Maryland,  rice  and  hides  in  the  Carolinas 
and  in  Georgia,  bullets  along  the  frontier.  The  several 
colonial  governments  authorized  the  practice  and  under- 
took to  fix  the  sj)crie  value  of  these  commodity  m.onevs. 
The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  (1640)  set  the  value 
of  Indian  corn  at  four  shillings  a  bushel,  that  of  rye  at  five 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonisation  47 


shaiings,  that  of  wheat  at  six.  According  to  Mme. 
Knight,  the  practice  still  held  at  New  Haven  in  1704. 
"They  give  the  title  of  merchant  to  every  trader: 
who  Rate  their  Goods  according  to  the  spetia  they 
pay  in:  viz.  Pay,  money.  Pay  us  money,  and  trust- 
ing. Pay  is  Grain,  Pork,  Beef,  etc.  at  the  prices  sett 
by  the  General  Court  that  year;  mony  is  pieces  of 
Eight,  Ryalls,  or  Boston  or  Bay  shillings  (as  they  call 
them,)  or  Good  hard  money,  as  sometimes  silver  coin 
is  termed  by  them;  Also  Wampom,  viz.  Indian  Beads 
w'cA  serves  for  change.  Pay  as  money  is  provisions  as 
aforesrf  one  Third  cheaper  then  as  the  Assembly  or  Gen/ 
Court  sets  it ;  and  Trust  as  they  and  the  merchant  agree 
for  time.  Now  when  the  buyer  comes  to  ask  for  a  com- 
odity,  some  times  before  the  merchant  answers  that  he 
has  it,  he  sais,  is  Your  pay  redy  ?  Perhaps  the  Chap 
Reply's  Yes ;  What  do  you  pay  in  says  the  merchant. 
The  buyer  having  answered,  then  the  price  is  set;  as 
suppose  he  wants  p  sixpenny  knife,  in  pay  it  is  i2d  —  in 
pay  as  money  eightijence,  and  hard  money  its  own  price, 
viz.  6<f."  In  Virginia  warehouses  were  established  for  the 
storing  of  tobacco,  and  certificates  of  deposit  were  issued 
that  served  the  purposes  of  local  trade,  but  the  value  of 
tobacco  fluctuated  from  year  to  year.  The  government 
attempted  to  limit  production  and,  failing  this,  was  forced 
to  buy  up  and  burn  an  extra  hea\y  crop  in  order  that 
the  surplus  might  not  depress  prices  unduly. 

The  colonists  found  the  natives  using  a  shell  money 
called  wampum,  and  this  admirably  served  the  purposes 
of  Indian  trade.  So  long  as  wampum  might  be  e.vchanged 
for  beaver  skins,  it  passed  as  money  among  the  whites, 
and  it  was  used  throughout  the  seventeenth  century  all 
along  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  disapfx-arance  of  the  Indian 
tribes  destroyed  its  purchasing  power. 


Bradford, 
281-283. 

Mme. 
Knight's 
Journal, 
S3-S4- 


Bullock, 
Pt.  I,  Ch.  II, 


Weeden, 

Indian 

Money. 


CHAPTER   III 

INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  UNDER  BRITISH 

CONTROL 


Dwight, 
Travels, 
II,  297-298, 
308-309, 
464-469. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  122. 
190-101. 


Agriculture 

The  men  who  came  to  the  English  colonies,  whether 
gentlemen  or  paupers,  proprietors  or  indentured  servants, 
were  under  the  common  necessity  of  providing  themselves 
with  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  The  first  settlers  were 
everywhere  farmers,  since  the  necessities  of  life  must  be 
had  from  the  soil.  How  easily  an  able-bodied,  intelligent 
man  could  make  a  living  in  America,  we  are  told  by  a  con- 
temporary observer.  '*  It  is  common  to  see  men  demand 
and  have  grants  of  land  who  have  no  substance  to  fix 
themselves  further  than  cash  for  the  fees  of  taking  up  the 
land ;  a  gun,  some  powder  and  shot,  a  few  tools,  and  a 
plow:  .hey  maintain  themselves  the  first  year,  like 
Indians,  with  their  guns,  and  nets ;  and  afterwards  by  the 
same  means  with  the  assistance  of  their  lands ;  the  labor 
of  their  farms  they  perform  themselves,  even  to  being  their 
own  carpenters  and  smiths;  by  this  means,  people  who 
may  be  said  to  have  no  fortunes,  are  enabled  to  live,  and 
in  a  few  years  to  maintain  themselves  and  families  com- 
fortably. .  .  .  The  progress  of  their  work  is  this ;  they 
fix  upon  the  spot  where  they  intend  to  build  the  house, 
and  before  they  begin  it,  get  rearly  a  field  for  an  orchard, 
planting  it  immediately  with  apples  chiefly,  and  some  pears, 
cherries,  and  peaches.  This  they  secure  by  an  inclosure, 
then  they  plant  a  piece  for  a  garden ;  and  as  soon  as  these 
works  are  done,  they  begin  their  house:  some  are  built 
by  the  countrymen  without  any  assistance,  but  these  are 

generally  very  bad  hovels ;   the  common  way  is  to  agree 

48 


1  cvelopment  under  British  Control 


49 


with  a  carpenter  and  mason  for  so  many  days'  work,  and 
the  countryman  to  serve  them  as  a  laborer,  which,  with  a 
few  irons  and  other  articles  he  cannot  make,  is  the  whole 
expense:  many  a  house  is  built  for  less  than  £20.  As 
soon  as  this  work  is  over,  which  may  be  in  a  month  or  six 
weeks,  hp  falls  to  work  on  a  field  of  corn,  doing  all  the  hand 
labor  of  it,  and,  from  not  being  able  to  buy  horses,  pays 
a  neighbor  for  plowing  it;  perhaps  he  may  be  worth 
only  a  calf  or  two  and  a  couple  of  young  colts,  bought  for 
cheapness ;  and  he  struggles  with  difficulties  till  these  are 
grown;  but  when  he  has  horses  to  work,  and  cows  that 
give  milk  and  calves,  he  is  then  made,  and  in  the  road  to 
plenty.  It  is  surprising  with  how  small  a  sum  of  money 
they  will  venture  upon  this  course  of  settling;  and  it 
proves  at  the  first  mention  how  population  must  increase 
in  a  country  where  there  are  such  means  of  a  poor  man's 
supporting  his  family  :  and  in  which,  the  larger  the  family, 
the  easier  is  his  undertaking." 

Money  profit  in  such  farming  there  was  none  unless  the 
land  was  situated  on  a  river  by  means  of  which  the  surplus 
products  might  be  shipped  to  market,  but  a  farmer  usually 
produced  everything  needed  for  the  comfort  of  his  family. 
Grain  grown  on  the  cleared  land  was  ground  at  a  grist- 
mill built  of  the  felled  trees  and  run  by  water  px)wer  or 
wind.    Cattle  and  hogs  ranged  the  woodland  and  furnished 
meat,  to  be  eaten  fresh  or  salted  down  in  pickle.     Hides 
wire  tanned  and  made  up  into  shoes  on  the  place,  and  the 
women  of  the  house  spun  and  wove  into  warm,  durable 
cloth  the  wool  cut  from  the  sheep  that  grazed  the  hill 
pastures.     Flax  was  grown  in  sufficient  quantity  to  pro- 
vide the  lighter  clothing.     Nothing  need  be  purchased 
but  salt  and  sugar,  tea  and  coffee,  millstones,  and  imple- 
ments of  iron.     Under  such  conditions  every  enterprising 
man  might  acquire  property,  even  though  he  came  into 
the  country  as  an  indentured  ser\ant.     His  term  of  service 
ai  an  end,  the  bondman  became  a  free  laborer,  and,  since 
\^agcs  were  high,  he  quickly  accumulated  enough  money 
to  secure  title  to  a  tract  of  land. 


IS; 


Greene, 
Ch.  XIV. 


American 
Husbandry-, 
I,  Ch.  VIII. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  45-93- 


Callender, 
Selections 
from  Econ. 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
6-15. 


Bradford, 
121. 

Dwight, 
II,  515. 


Dwight, 
I,  Letter 
VIII. 


50        Industrial  History  of  t'j  United  States 

The  mother  country  offered  no  such  opportunity  to 
her  sons.  There  wages  were  low  and  rents  high,  and  the 
cost  of  Uving  great.  Not  the  utmost  diligence  and  thrift 
could  put  a  poor  man  in  possession  of  an  acre  of  ground. 
Small  wonder  then  that  the  unemployed  laborers  and  dis- 
inherited yeomen  crowded  the  ships  bound  for  America 
and  besieged  the  land  ofl&ces  for  title  to  a  share  in  the 
wilderness. 

The  New  England  Colonies.  —  We  have  seen  with  what 
difficulty  Englishmen  adapted  themselves  to  the  severe 
chmate  of  New  England.    The  winters  were  bitter  beyond 
anything  they  had  known,  and  the  sudden  changes  of 
temperature  proved  trying  to  constitutions  accustomed 
to  equable  island  weather.     Granite  rock  and  glacial  drift 
made  an  unpromising  combination  to  farmers  accustomed 
to  the  fertile  fields  of  Old  England.     The  soil  was  sterile 
except  in  the  valleys,  and  the  summers  too  short  for  ripen- 
ing English  grains.     Nevertheless,  the  colonists  who  secured 
grants  in  this  inhospitable  region  managed  to  support 
their  families  and  eventually  to  accumulate  wealth.     The 
friendly  Squanto  taught  the  men  of  Plymouth  how  to 
plant  the  Indian  grain  and  how  to  fertilize  the  soil  with 
fish,  one  in  each  hill.     Maize  was  successfully  grown  in 
the  coast  districts  and  s(X)n  became  the  staple  breadstuff. 
Within  a  few  years  the  Pilgrims  were  selling  corn  and  salt 
pork  to  the  fishing  stations  up  and  down  the  coast.     Vege- 
tables, too,  flourished  in  the  brief,  hot  summers.     Apples 
and  cherries  and  the  hardier  fruits  did  well.     The  cattle 
brought  over  from  England  at  great  cost  found  pasture 
on  the  cleared  land,  but  it  was  necessary  to  house  and  feed 
them  through  the  three  or  four  months  when  the  ground 
was  covered  with  snow.     The  forests  afforded  excellent 
timber, —  oaks  for  the  hulls  of  ships,  spruce  unexcelled 
for  masts,  pine,  maple,  and  chestnut  for  the  building  of 
houses  and  barns  and  mills.     There  was  plenty  of  game, 
and  fish  were  abundant.     Where  everything  was  to  be 
had  for  the  asking,  men  grew  improvident  of  nature's 
gifts.     The  woods  were  cleared  with  a  wasteful  zeal  that 


Development  under  British  Control 


51 


took  no  thought  of  the  future,  the  soil  planted  continuously 
to  corn  was  soon  drained  of  its  fertility,  the  fur-bearing 
animals  disappeared  with  the  forests.  The  products  of 
field  and  woodland  would  have  supported  only  a  sparse 
population ;  but  New  England  had  other  sources  of  wealth. 
At  the  headwaters  of  the  Connecticut  and  the  Merrimac, 
the  Kennebec  and  the  Penobscot,  the  beavers  built  their 
dams.  Their  pelts  brought  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
shillings  a  pound,  and  trapping  was  a  lucrative  occupation. 
Plymouth  colony  sent  to  London  in  the  five  years  from 
1631  to  1636  £10,000  of  heaver,  and  the  furs  of  the  otter 
and  the  black  fox  were  hardly  less  \aluable.  Every  year 
Boston  sent  a  vessel  to  Sable  Island  which  came  back 
loaded  with  the  much  prized  skms  of  the  black  fox,  together 
with  seal  oil  and  sea  lion's  teeth.  The  Indians  were  the 
most  successful  trappers,  ;md  the  bulk  of  the  furs  was 
secured  from  them  in  extiiange  for  food,  blankets,  and 
ammunition.  New  England's  share  in  Ujs  profitable 
trade  was  forfeited  with  King  Philio's  war  (1685). 

The  men  of  the  coast  towns  found  a  mine  of  surpassing 
lichness  in  the  sea,  and  fishing  was  a  profitable  industry 
fioin  the  start.  Cod  of  exceptional  ^'zc  and  flavor  were 
cau<,'ht  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  fishermen  of  Marble- 
htcul  and  Salem  sent  shiploads  of  dried  fish  to  the  West 
Indies  and  to  the  Catholic  cor-^trieb  c^  Europe.  In  1641 
thrto  hundred  thousand  cod  were  sent  to  foreign  markets. 
WhLii  the  near-shore  fishing  grounds  were  exhausted,  the 
tntrrprising  Yankees  \entured  out  to  sea  and  were  re- 
warded by  larger  catchc-.  The  codbanks  off  Newfound- 
land afforded  a  more  Luting  supply. 

The  fisheries  createrl  a  (icmand  for  salt  which  was  readily 
suj)plied  by  evaporating  sea  water.  Salt  works  were  set 
uj)  at  Piscataqua  in  1623  and  at  Beverley  in  1638.  Along 
the  shores  of  Cape  Cod  as  wel.,  salt  vats  were  a  considerable 
source  of  revenue. 

The  right  or  fin  whale  was  abundant  off  the  New  Eng- 
land coast  throughout  the  first  hundred  years  of  colonial 
history,  and  furnished  products  of  great  importance  in  the 


Weeden, 
I,  00, 
i-'9-i32. 
135-140. 


Bradford, 
412-413- 


Weeden, 
I.  132-135- 


ritkin, 
Statistical 
View  of  U.S., 
37-43- 


Bishop, 
Hist,  of  Am. 
Manufac- 
tures, 
I,  Ch.  XIII. 

Dwifiht, 
III,  7.(81. 

Weeden, 
I,  Ch.  XI. 


52        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


TisHiNc  Banks  from  the  C.ilf  of  St.  L.wvre.^ce  to  the  Chesapeake 


Marvin, 
Am.  Mer- 
chant 
Marine, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Abbot, 
Am.  Ships 
and  Sailors, 
Ch.  IV. 

Pitkin, 

Statistical 
View  of  I'.S.. 
43-47- 


markets  of  the  time,  —  whale  bones  and  whale  cl.  The 
carcass  of  one  of  these  huge  creatures  was  valued  at  £i6. 
At  first  men  were  content  to  save  the  blubber  from  the 
bodies  that  drifted  ashore.  Soon,  however,  they  began 
to  put  cut  to  sea  in  boats  and  harpoon  the  animal  when  he 
came  up  to  breathe.  Toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  fishermen  of  Nantucket  took  up  this  hazardous 
industry  and  developed  a  high  degree  of  skill.  A  tradi- 
tion of  KiQO  has  it  that  a  prophetic  Islander,  as  he  watched 
the  whales  spouting  in  the  Sound,  exclaimed,  "  There  is 
a  green  pasture  where  our  children's  children  will  go  for 
bread."  The  season's  profits  were  shared  by  masters 
and  men,  so  that  every  man  aboard,  from  ^.he  raptahi  to 
the  cabin  boy,  was  directly  interested  in  the  success  of 
the  voyage. 

As  the  whales  were  driven  offshore,  these  hardy  sailors 
followed  them  out  into  the  deep  sea.     Ambergris  was  worth 


lit 


Development  tinder  British  Control 


53 


its  weight  in  silver,  while  sperm  oil,  ivory,  and  spermaceti 
were  in  great  demand.  Pursuit  of  their  mighty  prey  led 
the  whalers  to  Arctic  latitudes  —  Davis  Strait,  Behring 
Strait,  and  the  Antarctic  Sea.  Whaling  vessels  were  built 
!>  be  stanch  rather  than  swift  or  beautiful,  and  could  live 
1 '  the  roughest  weather.     They  were  manned   by  sailors 


aTle^  t>, 

f.:ri)l''irja. 


.<ri!.'.fT 


IN 


•■la  over  for  skill  and  daring.     New  Bedford, 
id  Provincetown  vied  with  Nantucket  in 
,);ofits,  but  Boston  was  the  center  for  the 


■jrk. 


The  climate  of  this  region  is  similar  to 
'   :r    .1        -  J-  ngland  except  :n  the  lake  district,  where  the 
■     IX-  i-  e  ib  milder  and  more  equable.     West  of  the 
...      :,  th,  granite  ranges  of  New  England  are  superseded 
'-  .'inu.  b.nt  hills.     The  soil  of  the  greater  part  of  New 
-'  IS  iii  -  -nsequence,   ir  more  fertile,  and  the  colonists 
secured  abundant  crops  without  the  aid  of  fish  or  clam 
shells.     Wheat  as  well  as  corn  could  be  grown  in  the  val- 
leys, and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  lakes  grapevines  and 
peach  tree^  flourished.     Noble  forests  repaid  in  timber 
more  than  the  cost  of  clearing  the  land.    Sawmills  were 
set  up  on  every  stream,  and  logs  could  be  floated  dowr.  the 
I^Iohawk  to  Albany  and  thence  down  the  Hudson  to  the 
^ta.    Wages  were  high,  even  for  field  labor,  and  a  man 
miuht  readily  save  money  enough  to  secure  a  farm.     Once 
in  possession  of  land,  he  was  able  to  feed  his  family,  and 
yi^  sell  something  in    'c  neighboring  town.     Every  farmer 
lived  ill  comfort  and  c  . ,  dess  plenty.     The  surplus  products 
^cnt  to  market  in  excliunge  for  the  necessities  not  produced 
at  J.onie  were  wheat  and  wheat  flour,  corn,  potatoes,  and 
!)ar!ey.     I'rom  this  last  the  brewers  of  New  York  made 
ar.  excellent  beer. 

ihe  Champlain  country  was  a  famous  trapping  ground 
for  beaver  and  other  fur-bearing  animals,  while  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  g;.ve  access  to  remote  and 
luicxplored  tracts  of  forest  country  and  to  Indian  tribes 
cnger  to  exchange  peltries  for  trinkets,  rum,  and  fir-arms. 
Uhcn  t..xs  traffic  was  at  its  height,  forty  thousand  skms 


Kaim, 

I,  234-272  ; 

II,  223-260. 

.Amerirj.n 
Husbandry, 
I,  94-125. 


American 
Husbandry, 

I,   11S-I2J. 


Docs.  Col. 
Hipl.of 
New  York, 


54        Indtist*ial  History  of  the  United  States 


ii)i 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  132-JIS. 

Kalm, 

I,  27-MS, 
184-194, 
220-233. 

340-359 ; 

II,  iog-114, 
188-195. 

Bolles, 
Pennsyl- 
vania, 
II,  Ch.  XIII. 


American 
Hushandry, 

I.  i5i-iS3. 
169-170, 
185-192, 
207-209, 

2M-2IS. 

420-43 1 ; 

II,  17,  19. 


American 

Huslianilry, 
I,  216  -24S, 
256-277. 
S  <o-.5<X), 
4M-435 


were  annually  exported  to  England,  but  the  trade  declined 
toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  export 
of  1699  amounted  to  only  fifteen  thousand  skins. 

The  Middle  Colonies.  —  The  territory  most  congenial 
to  Englishmen  by  reason  of  physical  endowment  lay  be- 
tween the  forty-second  and  the  thirty-ninth  parallels. 
Southern  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
Delaware,  although  ten  degrees  south  of  Great  Britain, 
have  a  climate  quite  similar.  The  virgin  soil,  even  under 
superficial  tillage,  yielded  crops  of  wheat  and  barley,  oats 
and  rye,  greater  than  the  English  farmer  could  produce 
with  scientific  fertilization  and  rotation  of  crops.  Peach 
trees,  a  hothouse  plant  in  England,  bore  so  heavily  on  the 
sandy  plains  of  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  that  the  fruit 
lay  wasting  on  the  ground  or  was  fed  to  hogs.  Cattle 
and  sheep  throve  on  the  rich  native  grasses  without  need 
for  housing  or  feeding  through  the  winter.  Timber  in 
great  variety  was  to  be  had  on  the  slopes  of  the  Alleghanies, 
and  the  Highlands  of  East  Jersey  contained  rich  mineral 
deposits. 

Great  estates  were  rare.  The  fertile  area  was  parceled 
out  in  small  farms,  and  the  settlers,  whether  Dutch, 
Swedish,  or  English,  lived  in  plain  but  ample  comfort. 
Indentured  servants  wore  fur  more  fref|ucnt  than  in  the 
colonies  to  north  or  south.  It  was  quite  usual  for  a  man 
of  no  substance  to  mortgage  his  labor  for  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation, and  foreigners,  notably  Germans,  jjreferred  this 
means  of  getting  to  America,  since  it  insured  them  em- 
ployment for  a  term  of  years  and  op{K>rtunity  to  learn  the 
language.  Sla\cs,  ten),  were  not  uncommon.  The  country 
was  better  suited  to  the  ;\frican  physique  than  the  more 
Northern  colonies. 

Virginia.  ~  South  of  Delaware  Bay  climate,  soil,  and 
products  were  new  to  men  born  in  the  British  Isles.  The 
summer  sea^iin  was  longer  and  far  hotter,  anu  the  lowlands 
were  malarial.  The  stttl«Ts  at  Jamestown  attempted  to 
grow  wheat,  but  >oon  (rso)\ered  that  though  the  plant 
shot  u|)  to  an  ama/ing  height  in  the  deep,  i)lack  soil,  the 


Development  under  British  Control  55 


r 

IS 

ii 
15 


'i; 


ISi     1 


nnu-e, 

I,  Ch.  IV,  V. 


fl 


CallcniliT, 
10  2S. 


56        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

kernels  did  not  harden  into  grain.  Maize  planted  under 
the  direction  of  the  Indians  brought  in  a  heavy  harvest, 
and  seven  summers  after  the  landing  there  were  five  hun- 
dred acres  in  corn. 

In  161 2,  John  Rolfe,  the  husband  of  Pocahontas,  raised 
a  crop  of  tobacco.     It  soon  proved  to  be  the  most  market- 
able article  to  export,  and  the  settlers  began  to  cultivate 
the  nicotine  plant  to  the  detriment  of  food  products,  until 
Governor  Dale  was  forced  to  decree  that  no  man  should 
plant  tobacco  until  he  had  at  least  two  acres  in  grain. 
The  Company  urged  the  cultivation  of  flax,  cotton,  indigo, 
grapes,  mulberry  trees,  and  silkworms,  commodities  that 
they  thought  more  advantageous  to  the  mother  country ; 
but  their  arguments  were  ridiculed  by  the  planters,  who 
persisted  in  growing  the  more  profitable  crop.     Flax  and 
raw  silk  require  continuous  care  and  highly  intelligent 
labor,  to  be  had  only  for  high  wages.     There  was  no  for- 
eign market  for  maize,  and  wheat  brought  —  but  25.  td. 
per  bushel  in  England,  while  tobacco  sold  for  zs.  a  pound. 
The  freight  rate  to  London  (  C;,  per  ton)  was  prohibitory 
in  the  case  of  the  less  valuable  croi).     In  1619  twenty 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  were  exported  from  Virgmia, 
in  1620  forty  thousand,  and  in  1622  sixty  thousand  pounds. 
So  given  over  to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  were  the  planters 
that  they  traded  their  firearms  to  the  Indians  in  exchange 
for  food.     The  Indian  massacre  of  162.^  was  the  result  of 
this  foolhardy  i)olicy.     In  the  year  following,  the  colony 
being  threatened  by  a  bread  famine,  the  government  re- 
quired that  a  public  granary  be  establishe<l  in  every  parish, 
where  each  adult  male  must  deposit  a  bushel  of  grain  after 
the   harvest.     Legislation    availed    very    little,     however, 
for  every  planter  followed  the  course  that  meant  imme- 
diate money  advantage.     Only  when  the  price  of  tobacio 
declined,  or  his  land,  drained  of  fertility  by  this  most  in 
hausting  of  crops,  would  no  longer  bring  in  a  prolital.K 
return,  did  he  undertake  the  growing  of  corn  and  wheat. 
James  I  ha<i  opposed  'he  cultivation  of  tobacco  on  nioiil 
grounds,  declaring  that  it  tended  to  '•  a  general  and  ni  w 


^•iKMSF' 


H 


J 


^mm 


m^f%7^iSP'S»9 


Development  under  British  Control 


S7 


corruption  both  of  men's  bodies  and  manners."  He 
forbade  it  to  be  grown  m  England,  and  restricted  the  im- 
portation to  fifty-five  thousand  pounds  a  year,  but  neither 
this  nor  later  restrictive  iecrees  were  of  any  avail.  In 
the  first  decade  of  the  eignteenth  century  the  colonies  ex- 
ported twenty-one  million  pounds  a  year,  that  figure  was 
doubled  by  1750,  and  a  clear  hundred-million  mark 
was  reached  before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Half  the  tobacco  exported  from  the  colonies  was  grown  in 
tidewater  Virginia. 

The  cultivation  of  tobacco  ha>  profoundly  influenced 
the  economic  organization  of  Virginia.     The  character- 
istic agricultural  unit  was  the  plantation  of  from  one  to 
fifty  thousand  acres.     For  the  better  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  the  land  was  tilled  by  indentured  servants, 
hut  as  the  money  advantage  of  slave  labor  came  to  be 
realized,  the  tobacco  fields  were  cultivated  i)\-  imywrted 
Africans.     It  was  a  tillage  that  did  not  require  a  high 
(lejjree  of  intelligence.     Ignorant  slaves  under  the  sujier- 
vision  of  overseers  plowed  and  planted  and  hoed  the  wide 
kvc-is  of  rich  loam  and,  when  the  plant  had  come  to  ma- 
turity, cut  and  carried  the  leaves  to  the  dry  house.     Great 
iMalc's  that  originally  cost  nothing  but  the  land  office  fees 
lirouj^'ht  their  owners  from   i"20,ooo  to    CSo.ocx)  a  year, 
wlvlo  the  ordinary  planter  could  count  on  an  income  of 
iinm  U^ooo  to  l'6ooo.     Estates  of  less  than  one  thousand 
.u n-  could  not  be  worked  to  adxantage  by  slave  labor. 
li    va~  otimated  that  one  slave  could  till  fifty  acres  and 
that  one  n\erseer  could  manage  twenty  sla\es,  and  varia- 
t'ons  from   this  economic    ratio   involved   loss.     It   was 
u<ual  to  reckon  the  value  of  a  plantatit)n  in  hands  rather 
than    in   acres.      Kach  slave  was    expected    to   produce 
L'l'i  worth  of  tobacco  and  C4  worth  of  lumber,  corn,  and 
other  provisions,  in  the  course  of  a  year.     Hy  so  doing  he 
paid  for  his  maintenance  (X^)  antl  the  interest  on  his  pur- 
chase price  {£'50  at  five  per  cent,  £2  io.v.)  and  brought 
in  a  handsome  margin  of  profit  to  his  master.     When  to 
th's  jiroduct  revenue  are  added  the  profits  on  the  natural 


Bruce, 
I,  Ch.  VII. 


Fiske, 

Old  VifRinia 
and  Her 
NciKhtjors, 

I,  22J-2JI  ; 

II,  184-2^0. 


Ballagh, 

Land 
System  in 
the  South, 
117   iig. 


Weld. 
I,  l,i,i, 
151    iS.'i. 
147-150. 

American 
Uusbandry, 
I,  .'-'S    2,\0, 
i.U.  ^4''.  247. 


1WS5W 


58        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Phillips, 
11,  29-39. 


f  i 
'  i 


Phillips, 
I.  :8j-28j. 


increase  of  marketable  slaves,  it  will  be  seen  how  great 
were  the  immediate  advantages  of  slavery. 

The  economic  disadvantages  were  less  evident  two 
hundred  years  ago  than  they  are  to-day.  The  once  pro- 
ductive tobacco  fields  are  now  "  dead  lands,"  or  are  made 
to  yield  a  meager  return  by  the  application  of  expensive 
fertilizers.  Rotation  of  crops,  subsoil  plowing,  the  utili- 
zation of  animal  manures,  were  alike  impossible  with  la- 
borers fresh  from  barbarism,  and  the  planters  were  forced 
to  extensive  cultivation.  When  one  tract  of  land  was  ex- 
hausted, overseer  and  slaves  were  moved  on  to  new  soil. 
Extravagance  and  waste  characterized  the  management  of 
the  whole  plantation.  Houses  were  slightly  built,  orchards 
were  no  longer  planted,  vegetables,  grains,  and  other 
possible  crops  were  neglected,  thf  fields  were  not  inclosed, 
cattle,  left  to  range  over  the  waste  lands  unhoused  and  un- 
fed, dwindled  in  size.  The  demoralizing  effect  of  extensive 
agriculture  was  never  more  apparent. 

The  wholesale  production  of  such  a  staple  meant  a  brisk 
export  trade.     The  tidal  rivers  and  liord-like  inlets,  lome 
of  which  were  navigable  eighty  miles  from  the  sea,  ad- 
mirably served  this  purpose.     The  banks  of  the  James, 
the  York,  and  the  Rappahannock  showed  a  series  of  great 
I)lantations,   each   with   its  own  wharf,   to  which   every 
autumn  sea-going  vessels  came  flirect  from   England  to 
take  aboard  the  hogsheads  of  tolvacco,  and  to  put  ashore 
the  commodities  sent  o\  er  in  exchange.     This  was  a  highly 
profitable  trade,  even  more  so  to  the  mother  country  than 
to   Virginia.     Enulish    manufacturers    found   among    the 
luxury-loving  planters  a  ready  market  for  their  tine  cloths, 
rich    carjiets,    and    mahogany    furniture.     Tobacco    was 
expected  to  pay  for  everything,  if  not  this  years  crop  then 
that  of  next.     Every  i)lanler  kept  a  running  account  with 
his  factor  in  London,  and  many  <>f  them  were  hopelessly 
in  debt  to  their  Knglish  creditors.    The  practiceoi"  mortgag- 
ing land  aixl  <  rops  airaiiist  the  merchant's  advances  has 
characterized  the  Southern  agriculturist  to  the  present  day. 
The  Piedmont  section  of  Virginia  and  the  (Ireat  Valley 


Development  under  British  Control 


59 


between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alleghanies  were  not  settled 
till  all  of  the  coastal  plain  had  been  appropriated,  and 
thus  the  development  of  the  hill  country  was  postponed 
until  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1716  Alexander  Spots- 
wood,  the  wisest  and  ablest  of  colonial  governors,  traversed 
the  fifty  miles  of  forest  that  divided  tidewater  Virginia 
from  the  Blue  Ridge,  crossed  that  mountain  barrier  at 
Swift  Run  Gap,  and  discovered  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
"  God's  own  country,"  as  he  devoutly  called  it.  The 
fifty  gentlemen  of  the  governor's  retinue,  the  "  Knights 
of  the  Golden  Horseshoe,"  who  drank  the  king's  health 
on  the  summit  of  Mount  George,  formed  a  significant 
contrast  to  the  actual  settlers  who  swarmed  into  the  coun- 
try during  the  next  hundred  years.  The  Scotch-Irish 
of  Ulster  were  driven  to  America  in  the  eighteenth  century 
by  no  less  urgent  a  motive  than  had  impelled  the  Puritans 
and  Cavaliers  in  the  seventeenth.  Their  woolen  and  linen 
industries  had  been  ruined  (16S1),  their  religious  and  civil 
liberty  curtailed  (1704)  by  act  of  Parliament,  and  they 
sought  freedom  from  English  tyranny  beyond  the  sea. 
It  was  a  veritable  race  migration.  Se\eral  hundred  thou- 
sand came  into  the  colonies  between  1730  and  1770,  the 
major  part  to  Philadelphia  and  Charleston.  In  1770  one 
third  of  the  population  of  Pennsylvania  was  of  this  sturdy 
stock.  Finding  no  desirable  land  open  for  settlement  in 
the  coast  country,  they  pushed  south  along  the  valleys  of 
the  .\ppalachian  Range  and  j)eopled  the  Great  Valley 
uf  Virginia,  destined  to  become  the  "  cradle  of  America." 
In  1760  the  >()uthernmost  settlement,  Watauga,  was  planted 
in  the  shadow  of  the  Great  Smoky  Mountains,  on  the 
elevated  plateau  formed  by  the  streams  that  flow  westward 
into  the  Tennessee. 

The  men  who  took  up  farms  in  the  mountain  valleys 
could  ra'sc  wheat  and  l)arley,  meat  and  wool,  fruit  and 
vegetaf)lcs,  sufficient  for  lamily  use.  For  commodities 
that  would  bring  a  price  in  distant  markets  high  enough 
to  pay  the  cost  of  trans[)ortation,  they  were  forced  to  de- 
pend on  a  \ariety  of  articles  to  be  produced  only  by  in- 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 

and  Her 

Neighbors, 

U.Ch.XVII. 

Letters 
of  Gov. 
Spotswood, 

I.  40 ; 

II,  205-207- 


Hanna, 
The  Scotch- 
Irish,  I, 
Ch.  XXXIX. 


Bolles, 

Pennsyl- 

vani.i, 

II,  Ch.  XII. 


McCrady, 
Histor>'  of 
South 
Carolina, 
II,  Ch   XVI, 
XVII. 


Philliiw, 
!•  254-255- 

Weld. 

I.  214-216. 

2.«>-2,J4, 
246. 


6o        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


P  K. 


i  'h 


II 


Callender, 

2.i-28. 


McCrady, 
II,  40.  6i, 
109, 126, 
143,  262-266, 
386-3QI, 
396-397- 


Ramsay, 
History  of 
South 
Carolina, 
II,  Ch.  V. 


American 
Husbandry, 

I,  345.  346. 
391-396,  407, 
408,  414-429 

Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

II,  326-330. 


telligent  labor.  From  these  uplands  came  the  deerskins 
and  tanned  leather,  the  timber  and  turpentine,  the  hemp 
and  flax,  that  figure  in  the  export  tables.  Such  farms  were 
profitable  only  under  intensive  agriculture,  and  there  was 
little  temptation  to  acquire  great  estates  or  to  import 
slaves.  The  people  of  the  "  back  country  "  were  thrifty 
pioneers  who  tilled  their  fields  with  their  own  hands  and 
manufactured  clothing,  furniture,  and  wagons  at  need, 
as  did  the  small  farmers  of  New  England  and  Pennsylvania. 
The  contrast  in  the  physical  features  of  the  plain  and  the 
foothills  was  reflected  in  the  character  of  the  respective 
populations. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  the  CaroJinas  and  of 
Georgia  were  quite  similar  to  those  of  Virginia,  except  that 
the  climate  of  the  coastal  plain  was  warmer  and  more 
malarial.  Here  in  the  sea  marshes  were  the  great  rice 
plantations.  Rice  must  be  flooded  in  the  growing  season, 
and  it  requires  a  rich  vegetable  mold  such  as  belongs  to 
the  swamp  belt.  Once  cleared  of  trees  and  thoroughly 
drained,  the  "  dismals  "  were  readily  converted  into  pro- 
ductive rice  plantations.  The  work  was  such  as  no  white 
man  could  endure,  for  the  laborer  must  stand  knee-deep 
in  mud  and  water,  stooping  under  a  broiling  sun,  while 
pestilent  exhalations  filled  his  lungs.  Even  the  blacks 
sickened  and  died. 

There  was  not  so  much  profit  in  this  crop  as  in  tobacco. 
Each  slave  was  expected  to  produce  £10  worth  of  rice  in 
a  season.  When  to  the  cost  of  maintenance  and  su{)er- 
vision  (£3),  and  the  interest  on  the  purchase  price  (£2 
I05.)  was  added  the  risk  of  sickness  and  loss,  the  rate  of 
profit  dwindled  considerably.  Nevertheless  the  planters 
lived  in  state  and  luxury,  drawing  freely  upon  the  rice 
merchants  for  advances  in  money  and  goods.  Slaves 
and  overseers  meant  great  estates  here  as  in  tidewater 
Virginia.  There  was  no  chatuc  lor  the  working  farmer 
in  a  region  where  the  climate  made  field  labor  impossible 
for  a  white  man. 

Rice  was  introduced  into  South  Carolina  in  the  last 


iSmi^^;  2ir^mm^ssimFrnKs  - 


J 


KIlK   Cll.lLKK    IN    MHIIl     L'AKOI.I.NA 


Il 


'ii'^^mk^  a 


Development  under  British  Control 


6i 


i 


quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century.     Before  the  close  of  Phillips, 
the  eighteenth  this  crop  made  up  one  half  the  exports  ^'  ^^l 
from  this  colony,  a  circumstance  that  gave  serious  concern   ^^'~^^5- 
to  the  home  government.     There  was  no  great  demand  McCrady, 
for  rice  in  the  British  Isles,  and  so  far  as  this  export  found  ^'  '^*'' 
its  way  into  European  markets,  e.g.  Spain  and  Portugal, 
it  came  into  competition  with  English  wheat.     No  argu- 
ments, however,  could  induce  the  planters  to  cultivate  the 
silkworm,  so  greatly  desired  by  the  Spitalfield   weavers. 
The  seed  of  the  Oriental  indigo  was  planted  on  the  Ashley 
River  by  Eliza  Lucas,  a  botanical  lady  of  Charleston,  in 
1 74 1,  and  after  a  series  of  vexatious  experiments  she  suc- 
ceeded in  extracting  a  dye  not  inferior  to  the  French  prod- 
uct.    For  fifty  years  thereafter  the  Sea  Island  planters  de- 
voted their  richest  soils  to  the  cultivation  of  indigo,  until, 
in  ihe  last  decade  before  the  Revolution,  South  Carolina 
exported  five  hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year.     Indigo, 
at  from  two  to  five  shillings  a  pound,  brought  in  a  hand- 
some revenue.     One  slave  could  care  for  two  acre«  pro- 
ducing each  eight  pounds  of  dye,  besides  putting  in  the 
^\intcr  months  on  other  croi)s. 

In  the  "  back  country  "  the  hills  were  clothed  with 
noble  forests,  and  the  soil,  of  the  valleys  at  least,  was 
amazingly  fertile.  Here  wheat  could  be  grown,  and  fruits 
and  vegetables ;  while  in  the  Northern  counties  tobacco 
was  cultivated  to  advantage.  Though  ther.e  was  more 
profit  in  tobacco  than  in  rice  and  though  the  air  of  the 
hills  was  more  wholesome,  the  original  settlers  of  the 
Carolinas  dung  to  the  sea  level,  and  population  moved 
westward  but  slowly.  Not  till  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  immigrants  driven  to  these  new 
lands.  The  pioneers  paid  their  way  by  the  products  of 
the  forests,  lumber  and  pitch  and  tar  and  the  skins  of  wild 
animals ;  but  as  the  trees  were  cleared  away,  rattle  were 
brought  in.  The  hill  pastures  were  excellent  grazing 
ground,  and  since  only  the  cultivated  fields  were  ft  need, 
the  cattle  roamed  at  will  irrespective  of  ownership,  and  a 
herd  of  a  thousand  head  was  not  uncommon.     This  was 


MICROCOrY   RtSOLUTION   TiST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


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RochMOr.    Htm   York  14609        USA 

(716)   482  -  0300  -  PhOTe 

(716)   288  -  ^989  -  Fo. 


62        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


American 
Husbandry, 
II.  IS. 


Michaux, 

Travels, 

290-306. 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 
398-420. 


Ill 


the  paradise  of  the  "  squatter."  A  fertile  tract  of  land 
having  been  chosen,  the  farmer  had  but  to  live  on  it  for 
a  term  of  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years  to  secure  fee  simple 
title.  The  forests  teemed  with  game,  the  rivers  with  fish, 
the  fertile  soil  yielded  food  in  plenty  with  the  rudest 
tillage,  and  an  industrous  man  might  readily  acquire 
a  snug  little  property.  Few  slaves  were  imported  into 
the  hills,  for  their  labor  was  not  so  profitable  as  in  the  low- 
lands and  their  requirements  in  the  way  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing were  greater.  Here,  as  throughout  the  Piedmont 
district,  north  and  south,  physical  conditions  favored  the 
small  estate  and  the  self-employed  farmer. 

Fostering  Legislation.  —  Certain  agricultural  interests 
were  furthered  by  the  desire  of  English  statesmen  to  render 
Great  Britain  independent  of  European  imports.  The 
hemp,  lumber,  pitch,  and  tar  used  in  British  shipyards 
had  been  imported  from  countries  with  which  England 
might  at  any  time  be  involved  in  war.  To  secure  these 
supplies  from  a  reliable  source,  the  government  determined 
to  repeal  the  import  duties,  so  far  as  the  colonies  were  con- 
cerned, and  to  offer  bounties  on  such  goods  as  should  be 
shipped  to  the  British  Isles.  The  bounty  on  hemp  was 
made  £6  per  ton  (1702).  In  response  to  this  premium 
Virginia  and  Maryland  exported  one  thousand  tons  a  year ; 
but  New  England,  whence  great  returns  were  expected, 
never  produced  enough  for  her  own  shipyards.  Deep, 
rich  loam  and  plenty  of  moisture  were  essential  to  success, 
and  these  conditions  were  rare  in  the  Northern  colonies. 
The  same  ac:  of  Parliament  offered  a  bounty  of  £1  per 
ton  on  masts  sent  to  England.  So  solicitous  was  the 
government  that  the  timber  of  the  colonies  should  not  be 
wasted,  that  a  penalty  was  imposed  for  felling  a  young  pine. 
The  surveyor-general  was  authorized  to  mark  with  a  broad 
arrow  trees  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  royal  navy,  and  the 
penalty  for  felling  was  €100.  The  British  import  duties 
on  lumber  were  removed.  Notwithstanding  these  induce- 
ments the  colonists  continued  to  ship  the  major  part  of 
their  lumber  to  the  West  Indies,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  in 


Development  under  British  Control 


63 


exchange  for  goods  imported  thence.    An  order  from  the 
Pnvy  Council  prohibiting  this  trade  was  of    no  effect 
"  Nothmg,"  said  one  of  the  king's  representatives,  "  but 
an  act  of  Parliament  can  prevent  them." 

The  Act  of   1702  proposed  bounties  on  other  naval 
stores,  £4  per  ton  on  tar  and  pitch,  £3  per  ton  on  rosin 
and  turpentme.     This  last  bid  was  unexpectedly  success- 
ful.    The  Carohnas  availed  themselves  of  the  premium 
offered  and  were  soon  sending  sixty  thousand  barrels  a 
year  to  England.    Prices  dropped  to  one  third  of  the 
former  rate  and  imports  from  the  Baltic  ceased.     English 
merchants  soon  had  more  of  these  commodities  than  could 
be  disposed  of  at  home  and  began  exporting  to  the  Conti- 
nent    For  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  production 
of  indigo,  the  duty  on  colonial  imports  was  removed  (1748) 
and  a  bounty  offered  of  sixpence  a  pound.    This  and  the 
removal  of  duties  on  raw  silk  affected  the  Carolinas  favor- 
ably, but  availed  nothing  toward  increasing  the  exports 
from  the  Northern  colonies. 


Manufactures 

Parliamentary    legislation    affecting    colonial    industry  Pitkin 
^as  usually  suggested  by  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Planta-  s.aSkai 
tions  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council  intrusted  with  the  V'V^  ^■^■• 
oversight  of  Britain's  possessions  in  America.     The  lord         ' 

ZoT 7?^'  ""'""  f^r'""^  '^  ^"^"'^^  '"to  the  con- 
airTcuIhL  t'  T''^\  plantations,  the  progress  made  in 
aSd  nethT;  '/"^  manufactures,  to  receive  complaints 
and  petitions,  and  to  make  recommendations  as  a  basis 
for  imperial  enactment.     The  first  concern  of  the  com! 

thrriVf"  *"k'"^^  ^"'^"•^'  '"^"-^^^y  '-  ^he  channels 
he  Vol  "^  '  '"""""^^  ^«  ^^'  '""^her  country,  for 

product!^        '"^""f^'-'tures  and  a  market  for  the  finished 

dif^uUtl^Ivf '  r-'"^^^^  °^  ^^"  ^"^'-^  f-"d  't 
aimcuJt  to  pay  for  g,xKls  imported  from  the  mother  country. 


64        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  first  shipload  of  exports  from  Plymouth  (the  Fortune, 
November,  162 1)  was  made  up  of  clapboards  and  beaver 
skins.  Naval  stores,  masts,  planking,  tar,  pitch,  etc.,  were 
always  in  demand,  but  the  supply  decreased  as  the  forests 
were  cleared.    Beaver  and  other  furs  brought  a  high  price 


B/>  LANCE 

IM  FAVOR 

Of  THE 

COIONIES 


£2,000,000 
£1,000,000 


£1,000,000 

BALANCE 
AQAINST    £2,000,000 

THE 
COLONIES  £3,000,000 


___    TOTAL  FOR  ALL  COLONIES      •..*-.^    FOR  PENNSYLVANIA 

FOR  NEW  -^NQLAND  /  «***.*,«     ?0«  VIROINIA  ADO  MARYLAND 

...m^.    FOR  NEW  YORK" FOR  CAROUNA . 

TuE  Balance  of  Trad.;  betw-een  the  .\merican  Colonies  and 
Great  Britain,  by  Decabes,  from  i6g7  to  177S 

in  London,  but  this,  too,  was  a  short-lived  industry. 
It  was  fortunate  for  New  Flngland  that  the  whale  fisheries 
began  to  afford  marketable  products  just  as  the  fur  trade 
was  languishing.  The  spoil  of  the  whaling  voyages,  how 
ever,  enriched  only  a  few  coast  towns.  The  farmers  could 
raise  nothing  that  found  a  ready  sale  in  England.  More- 
over, the  cost  of  imported  goods  was  beyond  their  means. 
The  transatlantic  voyage  was  slow  and  the  hazards  great , 
freight   charges   were   high   and   commissions   excessive. 


Development  under  British  Control 


65 


-§ 


Contemporary  records  abound  in  complaints  of  the  ex- 
travagant prices  paid  on  this  account.  A  shipload  of  goods 
sent  to  Plymouth  in  1624,  for  instance,  sold  at  a  profit  of 
seventy  per  cent.  The  Civil  Wars  (1640-1660)  checked 
migration  to  New  England,  and  the  inflow  of  gold  ceased. 
The  small  stock  of  coin  in  the  colony  was  quickly  exhausted, 
and  the  colonists  were  left  with  no  means  of  meeting  debts 
in  London. 

Cloth  Manufacture.  —  The  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts strove  to  meet  this  difliculty  by  encouraging  do- 
mestic manufacture.  In  1640  the  magistrates  were  di- 
rected to  further  the  growing  and  preparation  of  flax  and 
to  consider  measures  for  providing  wheels  and  teaching 
the  boys  and  girls  how  to  spin  not  only  flax  but  cotton  and 
wool.  In  1656  the  selectmen  of  the  se  °ral  towns  were 
ordered  to  require  every  family  to  furnish  one  or  more 
spmners  according  to  its  capacity,  each  of  whom  was  ex- 
pected to  spm  three  pounds  of  yarn,  cotton,  or  wool  every 
week  for  thirty  weeks  in  the  year.  The  penalty  for  non- 
performance was  a  fine  of  twelve  pence  for  every  nound 
short. 

The  raw  material  of  cloth  manufacture  was  scarce  and 
dear.  European  flax  had  been  introduced  in  1629  but 
despite  the  efforts  of  the  magistrates,  not  enough'  was 
raised  for  the  home  market.  Cotton,  a  far  more  difiicult 
hber,  was  brought  from  the  Barbadoes  and  the  West 
Indies,  but  could  only  be  spun  when  mixed  with  flax  and 
was  not  in  general  use.  Wool,  the  stuff  most  in  demand, 
might  not  be  had  from  the  mother  country,  for  the  English 
government  guarded  with  jealous  care  this  much  prized 
mdustry  and  prohibited  the  exportation  of  sheep  or  fleece 

l.Zlu^''  ^\  ^"\  ^'^  '^''P  '"  ^^^  ^°'«"y  a"d  the  only 
ConL  ?y '^  ""l ''''°'  ^'^'  ^"""^  •"  Spain.  The  General 
withfn  t  ^^".T^"^"^  (^645)  appealed  to  the  towns 
rnrrtj    f^  k""^'"''^"  '^  ""*  ^^^"^  ^^e  preservation  and 

w/I^  i''"'^^"'"^'  '"^  ^"«'^"^  '"'waning  o  come  over 
were  advised  to  bring  with  them  '<  as  many  sheep  as  they 


Bradford, 
243- 


Winthrop, 
Hist,  of 
New 
England, 
I.  55-57- 


Bagnall, 
Textile 
Industries 
of  U.S., 
I.  Ch.  I.  II. 


Abbott, 
Women  in 
Industry, 
Ch.  II. 


Col.  Laws 
of  Mass., 
141. 


Weeden, 
I.  165-178. 

Bishop, 
I.  Ch.  XIV 


66        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Weeden, 

I,  387-394- 

American 
Husbandry, 

II,  257-267. 

Bishop, 
I.  314- 


Callender, 
29-44. 


Doc.  Hist, 
of  New  York 
I,  711-712. 


conveniently  can."     Connecticut  enacted  similar  laws  for 
increasing  the  supply  of  flax  and  wool. 

The  raw  material  once  available,  the  people  were  soon 
able  to  manufacture  their  own  clothing.  Every  farmhouse 
kitchen  was  a  workshop  where  the  women  spun  and  wove 
the  surges,  kerseys,  and  linsey-woolseys,  which  served  for 
common  wear.  By  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
New  England  manufactured  cloth  in  sufficient  quantities 
for  exportation  to  the  Southern  colonies  and  to  the  West 
Indies.  As  the  industry  developed,  mills  were  erected 
for  the  more  difficult  processes  of  dyeing,  weaving,  and 
fulling,  but  the  carding  and  spinning  continued  to  be  done 
in  the  homes.  The  Dutch  of  New  Netherland  and  the 
Swedes  along  the  Delaware  were  no  whit  behind  their 
Yankee  neighbors.  In  Pennsylvania  prizes  were  offered 
for  the  finest  weaves  of  cloth,  and  the  artisans  of  Phila- 
delphia acquired  an  enviable  fame. 

Restrictive  Legislation.  —  So  long  as  the  colonists  con- 
fined themselves  to  making  coarse  cloth  for  family  use, 
the  British  government  showed  no  concern;  but  when 
goods  of  finer  grade  began  to  be  woven  and  offered  for 
general  sale,  the  English  woolen  manufacturers  became 
alarmed  lest  their  colonial  market  suffer.  Lord  Cornbury, 
the  avaricious  and  despotic  governor  of  New  York  (1702- 
1708),  reported  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  "  I  am  well  in- 
formed, that  upon  Long  Island  and  Connecticut,  they  are 
setting  up  a  Woollen  Manufacture,  and  I  myself  have  seen 
Serge  made  upon  Long  Island  that  any  man  may  wear. 
Now  if  they  begin  to  make  Serge,  they  will  in  time  make 
Course  \sic\  Cloth,  and  then  fine ;  we  have  as  good  fullers 
earth  and  tobacco  pipe  clay  in  this  Province,  as  any  in  the 
world ;  how  farr  this  will  be  for  the  service  of  England  I 
submit  to  better  Judgments ;  but  however  I  hope  I  may 
be  pardoned  if  I  declare  my  opinion  to  be,  that  all  these 
Colloneys  which  are  but  twigs  belonging  to  the  Main  Tree 
[England]  ought  to  be  Kept  entirely  dependent  upon  & 
subservient  to  England,  and  that  can  never  be  if  they  are 
suffered  to  goe  on  in  the  notions  they  have,  that  as  they  are 


Development  under  British  Control 


67 


Englishmen,  soe  they  may  set  up  the  same  manufactures 
here  as  people  may  do  in  England ;  for  the  consequence 
will  be  that  if  once  they  can  cloath  themselves,  not  only 
comfortably  but  handsomely  too,  without  the  help  of  Eng- 
land, they  who  are  already  not  very  fond  of  submitting  to 
Government  would  soon  think  of  putting  in  Execution  de- 
k  signs  they  had  long  harboured  in  their  breasts.     This  will 

not  seem  strange  when  you  consider  what  sort  of  people 
this  Country  is  inhabited  by." 

In  accordance  with  the  recommendations  of  the  lord 
commissioners.  Parliament  passed  the  Woolen  Act  (1690). 
No  woolen  goods  might  be  exported  from  the  colonies,  nor 
sent  from  one  colony  to  another,  nor  from  place  to  place 
in  the  same  colony  with  purpose  to  sell.  In  the  following 
year  the  duty  on  woolens  imported  from  England  was 
removed.  The  result  of  this  legislation  was  to  check  the 
manufacture  of  cloth  for  sale  and  to  prolong  for  a  century 
the  hold  of  the  English  woolen  merchants  on  the  American 
trade.  Fully  half  the  exports  to  the  colonies  were  woolen 
goods. 

To  a  self-supporting  community  leather  is  hardly  less  Bishop, 
important  than  cloth.  There  was  an  ample  supply  of  the  ^'  ^^-  ^^^ 
raw  material  in  all  the  colonies,  and  deerskins  and  the 
hides  of  cattle  and  sheep  were  early  utilized.  The  first 
tannery  in  New  England  was  erected  at  Lynn  in  1629.  In 
the  same  year  a  shoemaker  was  sent  over  to  Massachusetts 
Bay  by  the  Plymouth  Company.  The  community  gave 
him  fifty  acres  of  land  and  £10  a  year  for  his  services.  In 
1635  Lynn  set  upon  the  manufacture  of  shoes  and  soon 
became  famous  for  the  e.xcellence  of  its  product. 

Great  pains  were  taken  to  secure  a  sufficient  stock  of 
leather.  In  1640  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
enjomed  upon  the  population  the  preservation  of  hides. 
"  Whereas  wc  are  informed  of  the  neglect  of  many  in  not 
saving  such  hides  and  skins  as  by  casualty  or  slaughter 
come  to  hand,"  it  was  ordained  that  every  hide  must  be  sent 
to  a  tannery  under  a  penalty  of  a  £ii  fine,  and  leather 
searchers  were  appointed  by  each  town  whose  duty  it  was 


rr 


Bishop, 
I.  340-343 • 


68 


American 
Husbandry, 

I.  256-258; 

II,  34-41- 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


to  enforce  the  statute.  No  hides  or  unwrought  leather 
might  be  exported  from  the  colony.  So  successfxil  was 
this  policy  that  by  1650  Massachusetts  was  manufacturing 
shoes  for  sale  in  the  other  colonies.  Like  the  making  of 
cloth,  this  was  in  those  days  a  domestic  industry,  and 
furnished  a  profitable  winter  occupation  for  the  men  and 
boys  of  the  household.  Many  a  New  England  farm  still 
preserves  among  its  outhouses  the  diminutive  shoe  shop 
where  this  work  was  carried  on.  In  the  middle  colonies, 
too,  leather  manufactures  were  early  developed.  The  in- 
dustry was  of  prime  importance,  since  not  only  boots  and 
shoes,  but  coats,  vests,  doublets,  breeches,  and  stockings 
were  made  of  leather,  especially  for  servants'  use.  Even 
women's  skirts  and  aprons  were  fashioned  from  this 
durable  material. 

The  abundance  of  beaver  gave  the  colonists  a  distinct 
advantage  in  the  manufacture  of  hats.  In  response  to 
a  petition  from  the  felt  makers  of  London,  Parliament 
instituted  an  inquiry  (1731)  and  learned  that  ten  thousand 
hats  a  year  were  produced  in  New  England  and  New  York. 
In  Boston  alone  there  were  sixteen  hatters,  one  of  whom 
made  on  an  average  forty  hats  a  week.  The  goods  were 
exported  not  only  to  the  Southern  colonies  and  the  West 
Indies,  but  to  Ireland,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  where  they 
came  into  competition  with  English-made  hats.  To  guard 
the  home  industry.  Parliament  promptly  ordered  that  "no 
hats  or  felts,  dyed  or  undyed,  finished  or  unfinished," 
should  be  "put  upon  any  vessel  or  laded  upon  any  horse 
or  cart  with  intent  to  export  to  any  place  whatsoever." 
Persons  undertaking  such  trade  were  to  forfeit  £500  for 
every  offense.  No  negro  could  be  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  hats,  and  no  white  man  who  had  not  served 
seven  years'  apprenticeship.  These  restrictions  well-nigh 
ruined  the  nasc    ..  industry. 

The  products  of  the  Southern  colonies  did  not  come 
into  conflict  with  English  interests.  Preoccupation  in 
the  raising  of  a  few  staples  prevented  the  planters  from 
undertaking  manufactures.     The  several  legislatures  en- 


Development  under  British  Control 


69 


.    % 


"S 
f 


acted  statutes  to  encourage  the  production  of  raw  materials, 
such  as  hides  and  wool,  and  offered  bounties  on  linens, 
woolens,  hats,  hose,  etc.,  but  all  to  no  avail.    Nothing 
but  the  roughest  cloth  for  the  use  of  slaves  was  woven  on 
the  plantations.    The  by-industries  of  the  New  England 
farmhouse  could  not  well  be  developed  with  unintelligent 
slave  labor.     Writing  in  1705,  Robert  Beveriey  protested 
against    this  extravagant    policy.      "They    have    their 
clothing  of  all  sorts  from  England ;  as  linen,  woolen  and 
and  silk,  hats,  and  leather.    Yet  flax  and   hemp    grow 
nowhere  in  the  worid  better  than  there.    Their  sheep  yield 
good  increase,  and  bear  good  fleeces ;  but  they  shear  them 
only  to  cool  them.    The  mulberry  tree,  whose  leaf  is  the 
proper  food  of  the  silkworm,  grows  there  like  a  weed,  and 
silkworms  have  been  observed  to  thrive   extremely,  and 
without  hazard.    The  very  furs  that  their  hats  are  made 
of  perhaps  go  first  from  thence ;  and  most  of  their  hides 
lie  and  rot,  or  are  made  use  of  only  for  covering  dry  goods 
in  a  leaky  house.    Indeed,  some  few  hides  with  much  ado 
are  tanned  and  made  into  servants'  shoes,  but  at  so  careless 
a  rate,  that  the  planters  don't  care  to  buy  them  if  they  can 
get  others ;  and  sometimes  perhaps  a  better  manager  than 
ordinary  will  vouchsafe  to  make  a  pair  of  breeches  of  a 
deerskin.    Nay,  they  are  such  abominably  ill  husbands, 
that  though  their  country  be  overrun  with  wood,  yet  have 
they  all  their  wooden  ware  from  England ;  their  cabinets, 
chairs,  tables,  stools,  chests,  boxes,  cart  wheels,  and  all 
other  thmgs,  even  so  much  as  their  bowls  and  birchen 
brooms,  to  the  eternal  reproach  of  their  laziness."    The 
wasteful  habits  of  the  Southern  planters  suited  the  English 
merchants  and  manufacturers  far  better  than  New  Eng- 
land thrift. 

The  cost  of  importing  iron  manufactures,  nails,  agri- 
cultural implements,  firearms,  anchors,  chains,  etc.,  was 
so  high  that  the  colonists  early  undertook  to  provide  them- 
selves with  these  essential  commodities.  There  was  a 
erruginous  deposit  in  the  swamps  and  ponds  all  along 
the  coast  from  which  iron  of  good  quality  might  be  pro- 


Phillips, 
I,  186-193. 


Beverley, 
Bk.  IV, 
Ch.  XVII, 
XVIII. 


Bishop, 

I,  Ch.  XVII. 

Swank, 
Hi.st.  Manf. 
of  Iron, 
Ch.  X.  XI. 


i 


70        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

duced.    John  Winthrop,  Junior,  one  of  the  enterprising 
business  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  secured  capital  and 
skilled  laborers  from  England,  and  erected  (1643)  a  smelting 
furnace  near  Lynn.    The  ore  was  got  from  Saugus  Pond, 
wood  for  charcoal  and  water  power  for  the  blast  furnace 
were  near  at  hand,  and  the  works  were  soon  turning  out 
seven  tons  of  pig  iron  per  week.     A  forge  for  the  refining 
of  the  ore  was  set  up  in  1648,  and  a  foundry  for  casting 
soon  followed.    Joseph  Jenks,  one  of  the  workmen  brought 
over  from  Hammersmith,  designed  important    improve- 
ments in  scythes,  sawmill  machinery,  etc.,  and  was  a 
considerable  factor  in  the  success  of  the  Lynn  works. 
For  twenty-five  years  farm  tools  and  domestic  utensils 
sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  growing  communities  in 
eastern  Massachusetts  were  manufactured  here.    Then, 
the  supply  of  bog  iron  and  of  charcoal  failing,  the  enterprise 
was  abandoned.    The  General  Court  granted  three  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  in  Braintree  to  Winthrop  and  his  partners 
in  the  hope  of  developing  the  manufacture  of  iron  from  the 
bogs  of  Monontocot  River,  but  this  ore  deposit  was  ex- 
hausted within  ten  years,  and  the  works  were  abandoned. 
More  successful  was  the  furnace  built  at  Raynham  (1656) 
by  the  Leonard  Brothers,  English  forgemen  first  employed 
by  the  Lynn  Company.    The  adjacent  marshes  sufficed 
for  this  and  several  other  foundries  in  the  town  of  Taunton. 
Somewhat  later  iron  works  were  erected  at  Great  Barring- 
ton  (1731)  and  Lenox  (1765)  in  the  Berkshires.     For  the 
first  century  of  our  history,  Massachusetts  was  the  center 
of  the  iron  industry,  but  the  other  New  England  colonies 
were  not  far  behind.     Rhode  Island  had  an  iron  foundry 
at  Pawtucket,  set  up  by  Joseph  Jenks.    John  Winthrop 
moved  to  the  Connecticut  Valley  in  1645  and  began  the 
smelting  of  iron  at  New  London  and  New  Haven  (1658). 
The  General  Court  granted  exemption  from  taxation  to 
all  persons  and  property  engaged  in  this  important  enter- 
prise.   The  hill  country  of  Connecticut  proved  to  contain 
valuable  deposits  of  hematite  ore,  and  the  iron  mines  ot 
Litchfield  County  soon  gave  Connecticut  precedence  over 


Development  under  British  Control 


71 


"si^ 


Massachusetts.    A  forge  erected  at  Lime  Rock  in  1734 
has  been  in  continuous  operation  to  the  present  day. 

The  manufacture  of  nails  and  tacks  was  a  domestic  in- 
dustry that  brought  in  considerable  revenue  to  the  farmers 
of  New  England.  A  small  furnace  was  set  up  in  the 
chimney  corner,  and  in  the  winter  season  great  quantities 
of  nails  and  tacks  were  hammered  out  by  the  men  and  boys 
who  would  otherwise  have  been  idle.  With  anvil  and 
hammer  a  man  could  make  two  thousand  tacks  in  a  day. 
The  rod  iron  was  furnished  by  a  neighboring  slitting  mill 
whose  proprietor  paid  the  nailmakers  for  their  work  and 
marketed  the  product. 

There  was  no  smelting  of  iron  in  New  York  until  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  Ancram  works 
were  established  on  Livingston  Manor.  The  ore  was 
carried  down  from  the  Connecticut  hills.  The  rich  de- 
posits of  Orange  County,  New  Jersey,  were  developed  before 
the  Revolution.  One  of  the  Leonards  began  the  smelting 
of  bog  iron  at  Shrewsbury  in  1674,  but  the  magnetic  ores 
were  not  discovered  until  17 10.  This  valuable  mineral 
was  mined  in  the  Highlands  and  carried  in  leather  bags  on 
pack  horses  to  the  works  at  Whippany  on  the  Passaic 
River.  The  bar  iron  was  transported  in  the  same  toilsome 
fashion  across  the  Orange  Mountains  to  Vewa'-k  for  sale. 
A  large  part  of  this  product,  as  well  as  iL ,  1 1 n'  t  h  %ew  York 
works,  was  shipped  to  England,  and,  since  ba,  .n  brought 
£20  per  ton.  it  was  a  profitable  export.  (  )per  vein? 
were  discovered  in  the  same  metalliferous  ran  and  su. 
cessfully  worked  by  the  .Schuylers,  who  exp  he  or., 

which  was  worth  £40  per  ton,  to  Bristol,  \  s       The 

settlers  of  eastern  Pennsylvania  began  to  ;-  ore 

and  to  cast  stoves  and  rough  utensils  early  in  tb  :nuenth 
century.  Some  ore  was  mined  along  the  Dtla  are  and 
Susquehanna  rivers,  but  the  surpassingly  rich  posits 
of  the  Alleghanies  were  not  opened  up  till  the  nu,  ^nth 
century. 

Iron  ore  was  one  of  the  commodities  shipper! 
Jamestown  in  1608,  and  the  London  Company  antici|># 


k, 

■li    iX 

XUI 


'J 2        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Bishop, 

I,  Ch.  XVIII. 


■i    ' 


!■! 


rich  returns  from  this  source.  In  1619  skilled  workmen 
were  sent  over  to  "  set  up  three  iron  works  "  in  Virginia, 
and  two  years  later  John  Berkley,  "  gentleman,"  came  out 
to  take  charge  of  the  enterprise.  Rich  deposits  of  bog  iron 
were  found  on  Falling  Creek,  near  Richmond,  and  a  furnace 
was  built,  but  in  the  Indian  massacre  cf  1622  works  and 
workmen  were  destroyed.  The  manufacture  of  iron  was 
not  resumed  until  a  hundred  years  later,  when  under  the 
auspices  of  Governor  Sjiotswood,  "  the  Tubal  Cain  of 
Virginia,"  the  industry  was  placed  on  a  stable  foundation. 
Si.x  hundred  tons  of  iron  were  smelted  in  Spotswood's 
furnace  in  1760.  Furnaces  were  built  at  the  falls  of  the 
James  River  near  Richmond  and  on  the  Rappahannock 
near  Fredericksburg.  Here  the  ore  was  blasted  from  rocks 
near  the  surface  und  carried  in  baskets  to  the  furnace. 
Some  of  the  Virginia  output  was  cast  into  domestic  utensils, 
but  the  greater  part  was  exported  to  England  in  pigs  and 
bars.  The  House  of  Burgesses  assisted  in  the  develop- 
ment of  these  mines  by  grants  of  land  and  by  the  construc- 
tion of  roads. 

The  Maryland  Assembly  offered  (17 19)  one  hundred 
acres  of  land  to  any  citizen  setting  up  furnaces  and  forges 
in  the  province.  The  first  undertaking  was  made  at  the 
head  of  Chesapeake  Bay  by  the  falls  on  Principio  Creek, 
capital  and  workmen  being  provided  from  England. 
The  men  were  convicts  sent  over  to  serve  out  their  term 
and  the  initial  management  was  dishonest,  but  after  years 
of  disheartening  effort,  the  enterprise  was  made  to  pay  a 
considerable  revenue.  The  greater  part  of  the  pig  iron 
exported  to  England  was  shipped  by  this  company.  The 
Principio  furnaces  and  Go\'ernor  Spotswood's  mines  were 
the  only  iron  works  of  any  importance  south  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  these  were  engaged  in  the  production  of  pig  and 
bar  iron  rather  than  in  manufacture. 

Restrictive  Legislation.  —  Now  it  happened  that  in 
England  the  iron  industry  was  hampered  by  lack  of  raw 
material.  The  ore  of  Sussex  and  the  supply  of  charcoal 
from  the  Weald  were  nearly  exhausted,  and  the  resources 


Pcvclopincnt  under  British  Control 


7i 


of  the  "  black  country  "  were  still  unknown.  Fully  half 
of  the  pig  iron  consumed  in  the  furnaces  of  Sheffield  was 
imported  from  Sweden  and  Russia.  The  ironmasters 
bethought  them  that  the  supply  might  be  had  more  cheaply 
from  the  colonies,  and  they  urged  upon  Parliament  the 
desirability  of  appropriate  legislation.  It  was  hoped 
that  the  twenty  thousand  tons  a  year  needed  to  keep  the 
English  foundries  going  might  be  had  from  America, 
where  fuel  and  water  power  were  abundant  and  the  cost 
of  production  low.  Pig  iron  imported  from  the  colonies 
could  be  paid  for  in  manufactures,  and  thus  another  busi- 
ness interest  would  secure  an  advantage.  The  act  of  1750 
provided  that  pig  iron  imported  from  America  might  come 
into  any  British  port  duty  free,  while  bar  iron  was  made 
duty  free  at  the  port  of  London.  Since  European  imports 
were  subject  to  high  duties,  this  gave  an  important  ad- 
vantage to  colonial  smelters  and  induced  a  considerable 
increase  in  the  shipments.  The  interests  of  the  British 
manufacturers  were  further  guarded  by  the  stipulation 
that  "  no  mill  or  other  engine  for  slitting  or  rolling  of  iron, 
no  plating  forge  to  work  with  a  tilthammer,  and  no  furnace 
for  making  steel ""  should  be  erected  "  in  any  of  His 
Majesty  s  colonies  in  America."  Mills  already  established 
were  to  be  deemed  a  public  nuisance.  The  effect  of  this 
legislation  was  a  serious  check  to  the  development  of  iron 
manufactures  in  the  colonies. 


Bishop, 
I,  623-028. 


Commerce 

Wagon  Roads.  —  The   surplus   products   of  industry,  Weeden, 
beaver  skins,  tobacco,  or  lumber,  mean  much  or  little  ^<  "o-i'S, 
to  the  producer,  according  to  his  chances  of  getting  them   ''°^'|'' 
to  market.     The  .\tlantic  coast  colonies  were  fortunate 
in  their  commercial  opportunities.    The  short  rapid  rivers 
of  New  England  are  not  usually  navig-ble  for  freight  boats 
more  than  a  few  miles  above  tidewater.      By  dint  of  nu- 
merous carries  the  Charles,  the  Merrimac,  the  Penobscot, 
and  the  Housatonic  were  made  to  serve  the  needs  of  local 


.■  ■♦■ 


74        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Madame 
K  night's 
Journal. 


traffic,  but  the  Connecticut  was  the  only  New  England 
river  that  played  any  considerable  part  in  general  trade. 
Sea-goinj^  vessels  made  their  way  up  this  river  to  Hartford, 
where  the  freight  was  transferred  to  scows  and  rafts  and 
so  conveyed  to  Windsor  Locks.  As  the  interior  was 
settled,  it  became  necessary  to  supplement  the  waterways 
by  roads.  In  1639  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
ordered  that  each  town  should  construct  a  highway  to 
connect  with  that  of  the  adjoining  town,  and  the  Bay 
Road  from  Boston  through  Salem  and  Ipswich  to  Newbury 
was  built  this  year.  In  1654  land  communication  was 
est;,  'lished  with  the  Providence  Plantations  by  means  of 
the  Comnfon  Road  that  ran  through  Pawtucket  Falls  and 
Rehoboth.  The  Shore  Road  connected  Providence  with 
the  settlements  along  the  Connecticut  coast  and  with  New 
York.  The  Hartford  Trail  struck  into  the  interior  through 
Dedham,  Dove,  and  Medlield  to  Hartford,  while  the 
Lancaster  Road  was  carried  directly  west.  The  road 
bu'lders  often  took  advantage  of  the  Indian  trails,  widening 
the  footpath  to  a  bridle  path  and  later  to  a  wagon  road. 
It  was  a  task  of  enormous  difficulty  where  able-bodied 
men  were  so  few,  and  material  obstructions  were  but  little 
modified.  Hills  could  not  be  leveled  nor  marshes  drained, 
nor  could  wagon  bridges  be  built  except  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  a  populous  town.  The  Great  Bridge  from 
Boston  to  Cambridge  was  completed  in  1662,  but  the  public 
coach  was  not  put  on  the  road  till  seven  years  later.  In 
1 704  Madame  Knight  made  the  greater  part  of  the  journey 
from  Boston  to  New  York  on  horseback  and  told  an 
amusing  tale  of  the  horrors  of  the  route.  Transportation 
by  land  was  much  more  costly  than  by  water.  The  freight 
on  a  bushel  of  grain  from  Northampton  by  wagon  to  Wind- 
sor Locks  was  one  shilling,  from  the  Locks  to  Hartford  by 
river  scow,  twopence,  from  Hartford  to  Boston  by  sailing 
vessel,  sixpence. 

In  transportation  by  sea,  New  England  had  the  great 
advantage  of  convenient  harbors.  Wherever  a  river  met 
the  tide,  seajwrts  such  as  Portland,  Portsmouth,  Boston, 


Development  tinder  British  Control 


75 


Bolles, 
Pennsyl- 
vania, 
II,  Ch.  XVII. 


Weed  en, 
1,  88-97. 
iJO-140. 


Winthrop, 

I,   ij',  135- 


76        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

and  Newport  prosecuted  a  thriving  trade.  Goods  brought 
down  from  the  farms  by  boat  or  wagon  were  loaded  on  to 
vessels  bound  for  England  or  the  West  Indies.  Long 
Island  Sound  conducted  the  traffic  of  New  England  to  the 
great  harbor  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson. 

The  waterways  of  New  York  and  the  middle  colonies 
were  unrivaled  in  the  British  possessions.  The  Hudson 
was  navigable  for  ocean  vessels  as  far  as  Albany,  and  the 
connection  thence  by  way  of  Lakes  George  and  Champlain 
to  the  St.  Lawrence  was  easily  made.  Where  the  Mohawk 
breaks  through  the  Appalachian  range,  an  elevated  plain 
led  to  Lake  Ontario.  By  this  gateway  the  Iroquois  trail 
crossed  to  the  Hudson  and  thence  to  Manhattan,  and  the 
pioneers  easily  widened  the  trail  into  a  wagon  road.  The 
Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna  were  waterways  of  prime 
importance  to  the  settlers  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey. 
The  King's  Path  led  from  Perth  Amboy  to  navigable  water 
at  Philadelphia,  and  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  bays 
were  connected  by  wagon  road.  These  exceptional  trans- 
portation facilities  gave  rise  to  the  ports  of  Philadelphia 
and  Baltimore. 

Waterways  served  so  well  the  purposes  of  the  plantation 
trade  that  the  men  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  made 
little  effort  to  build  roads.  The  higher  lands  between  the 
river  bottoms  were  comparatively  barren  and  were  there- 
fore unappropriated,  or,  where  included  in  a  grant,  were 
utilized  as  cattle  ranges.  Cross-country  trade  was  in- 
frequent and  difficult,  hence  there  were  no  towns  of  im- 
portance in  the  interior.  Only  where  a  produce-laden  river 
joined  the  sea  could  commerce  develop.  Norfolk, 
Charleston,  and  Savannah  were  first-rite  ports. 

The  Coastwise  Trade.  —  The  first  commercial  ventures 
were  made  in  th^'  Indian  trade.  The  settlers  sold  corn 
and  other  foodstuffs,  beads  and  trinkets,  shirts  and  blan- 
kets, to  the  neighboring  savages,  while  firearms,  gun- 
powder and  rum,  though  forbidden  by  the  home  govern- 
ineni,  made  a  considerable  ileni  ill  ihe  stock  of  an  Indiun 
trader.    The  redskins  offered  in  exchange  game  and  furs. 


Development  under  British  Control  77 

Twenty  beaver  skins  was  the  price  of  a  musket  along  the 
Mohawk  River.    Plymouth  colony  had  trading  posts  on 
the  Kennebec  and  Connecticut  rivers,  the  men  of  Boston 
on  the  Penobscot  and  the  Merrimac.    The  colonists  came 
mto  sharp  competition  with  the  Dutch  on   the   Hudson 
and  with  the  French  in  Maine.    The  Dutch  pretensions 
came  to  an  end  in  1664,  but  the  French  myageurs  had 
penetrated  the  upper  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes 
Their  ascendancy  with  the  Indian  tribes  gave  them  con- 
trol of  the  fur  trade,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century  the 
traffic  was  well-nigh  engrossed  by  these  skillful  diplomats 
The  fishing  stations  along  the   New  England   coast 
afforded  an  increitsingly  lucrative  commerce.    At  Piscata- 
qua  and  Pemaquid,  and  the  fishing  villages  of  Cape  Ann 
on  Sable  Island,  and  among  the  French  traders  on  the  Cana- 
dian rivers,  there  was  a  steady  demand  for  corn,  salt  pork 
and  other  supplies.    In  the  Southern  colonies,  too,  there 
was  a  ready  market  for  the  products  of  Yankee  industry 
-  cereals,  live  stock,  shoes,  and  woolens.    The  merchants 
received  in  exchange  tobacco,  leather,  timber,  tar,  and 
wheat.    Trade   with   New   Netheriand   was   contraband 
until  1664,  but  much  clandestine  commerce  was  carried  on 
The  men  of  Plymouth  had  a  trading  post  at  Manomet  in 
Buzzards  Bay,  where  they  stored  their  goods,  tobacco 
(brought  from  Virginia),  planks  and  pipe-staves,  sack  and 
rum  and  received  in  exchange  sheep,  beaver  skins,  sugar 
and  linen  cloth,  and  their  factories  on  the  Connecticut 
Kiver  were  no  less  prosperous.    In  1642  a  fine  stone  tavern 
vv^s  built  on  East  River  to  take  advantage  of  the  custom 
Of  the  many  strangers  who  touched  at  New  Amsterdam  on 
their  way  from  New  England  to  Virginia. 

New  F  nTr'^^""""  ?"*••  ~  ^°^  ^"^'  «^  the  products  of 
rZ  ,  ^'''"'^  ''■^'  t^^""^  ^  ^^"-ket  in  the  mother  country, 
as   hti  "!!!!,''  ^""^  ^'^  ^"^  E"«'''^^  'Staples,  and  so  far 

StUion  wll^H  ''"■'  """'  '"  ^"«'""^  "^^y  ^^'"^  i"to  com- 
petition with  domestic  products.    The  Corn  Law  of  iAXq 

ZoTht  1"  1""  ''T''  ^''^t  ^'^^^  practically  prohibitory! 
and  other  legislation  forbade  the  importation  iMo  England 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 

IV,  210. 


Bradford, 
266,  381. 


0'CaIlaj?han, 
New  Nether- 
land,  2S9- 


Wccden, 
I,  143-164. 


Callender, 

lO -30. 


78        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Weeden, 
II,  Ch.XII. 


Phillips. 
II,  4Q-SJ- 


Abbot, 
Ch.  III. 


Felt, 

Annals  of 
Salem, 
II,  289- 


Weeden. 

I,  232  M4. 

,vn-.?7« : 

II,  552-504, 

607-6  2, ?, 

641-665. 


of  salted  beef  and  pork.  The  only  profitable  market  for 
the  surplus  crops  of  New  England  was  in  the  West  Indies. 
There  her  flour,  fish,  and  lumber,  her  woolen  and  leather 
manufactures,  were  in  great  demand  and  could  be  ex- 
changed for  sugar,  molasses,  cotton  wool,  dyestufis,  etc.,  — 
the  surplus  products  of  a  tropic  clime.  Brought  back  to 
Boston  and  Newport  the  molasses  was  made  over  into 
rum,  and  the  cotton  and  dyestuffs  into  cloth,  commodities 
that  could  be  marketed  at  a  considerable  advance  in 
price.  The  Bermudas  sent  potatoes  and  other  vegetables, 
oranges  and  limes,  luxuries  for  which  the  coast  colonies 
were  their  only  market.  The  exports  of  the  middle  colo- 
nies, grain,  salt  meat,  and  lumber,  werd  also  sent  to  the 
Caribbeans.  The  Southern  colonies  sent  nothing  to  the 
West  Indies  and  required  nothing  thence ;  hence  trade 
with  the  islands  was  confined  to  the  Northern  ports. 

The  Slave  Trade.  —  The  monopoly  of  the  Royal  African 
Company  was  broken  in  1698,  and  this  lucrative  com- 
mercial opportunity  was  thrown  open  to  any  vessel  flying 
the  British  flag.  The  traders  of  New  England  quickly 
secured  their  full  share.  Sloops  from  Boston,  Newport, 
and  Bristol  sailed  for  the  Gold  Coast  laden  with  hogsheads 
of  rum.  This  was  exchanged  for  captive  negroes,  or, 
perchance,  for  bars  of  gold  and  iron.  The  wretched  human 
freight  was  carried  to  the  West  Indies  and  traded  for  sugar 
and  molasses,  or  to  Virginia,  where  negroes  brought  a  good 
price  in  tobacco.  Either  cargo  could  be  disposed  of  to 
advantage  on  returning  to  the  home  port,  and  the  profits  of 
this  triangular  commerce  were  enormous.  A  slave  pur- 
chased for  one  hundred  gallons  of  rum  worth  £10  brought 
from  C20  to  £50  when  offered  for  sale  in  America.  New- 
port could  not,  with  her  twenty- two  still  houses,  manu- 
facture rum  enough  to  meet  the  demand. 

Transatlantic  Trade.  —  Old  World  markets  offered 
a  steady  demand  for  the  agricultural  products  of  America. 
Fish,  timber,  furs,  and  tobacco  made  the  bulk  of  the  homo- 
bound  cargoes  in  the  seventeenth  century;  whale  oil  and 
whalebone,   cider,   rum,   and  rice  figured  largely  in  the 


Development  under  British  Control  79 


exports  of  the  eighteenth.  Returning  vessels  brought 
Unen  and  woolen  goods  from  England  and  Holland,  iron 
and  wool  from  Spain,  salt  from  Portugal,  spices  Irom  the 
Mediterranean,  wine  and  fruit  from  Madeira  and  the 
Canar>'  Islands.  Each  shipmaster  (English,  Dutch,  or 
Spanish),  selected  the  goods  that  he  thought  most  likely 
to  find  purchasers  in  the  colonies,  and,  once  arrived  in  an 
American  port,  was  fain  to  take  in  exchange  whatever 
salable  commodities  were  there  to  be  had.  In  the  search 
for  a  market  for  the  tobacco,  pipe-sta\es,  beaver,  or  salt 
cod  taken  aboard,  he  might  steer  for  England  or  the  West 
Indies  or  the  Mediterranean  as  he  saw  fit.  A  vessel  not 
infrequently  spent  years  in  this  roundabout  trade  before 
returning  to  her  home  port. 

Restrictive  Legislation.  —  The  colonial  policy  of  Eng- 
land during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  was 
dictated  by  the  theory  that  settlements  were  "planta- 
tions "  whose  industries  must  ser\e  British  interests. 
No  mines  producing  gold  and  silver  had  been  discovered, 
but  money  could  be  coined  in  trade.  Tobacco,  for  example, 
by  legislation  of  1621,  might  be  exported  only  in  English 
ships  and  to  English  ports,  where  a  duty  varying  from  one 
to  threepence  a  {lound  was  levied.  In  due  course  this 
restricted  market  was  overstocked,  and  the  price  fell  from 
three  shillings  per  pound  in  1619  to  twopence  per  pound 
m  1704.  The  tobacco  planter  was  denied  direct  access 
to  the  Continent,  where  jjriccs  ranged  much  higher. 
Coastwise  traffic  was  subject  to  a  provincial  duty  of  a 
penny  a  pound,  but  this  tax  was  frequency  evaded.  It 
was  not  a  difTicult  matter  to  load  the  hogsheads  on  to 
lighters  and  take  them  out  under  cover  of  night  to  the 
trader  that  lay  off  the  coast  waiting  for  the  clandestine 
freight.  Smuggling,  in  the  mind  of  the  outraged  planter, 
was  an  entirely  legitimate  method  of  getting  a  fair  price 
for  his  crop,  and  British  mtn-of-war  patrolled  the  coast 
m  vam.  The  bayous  of  the  Chesapeake  nourished  a  breed 
ot  nimble  sailors  who  gloried  in  outwitting  the  customs 
'fticers.    One  of  these  pirafs  scuttled  his  schooner  to 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 


Rabbcno, 

American 

Commercial 

Policy, 

3-2  1,  48-;  I. 

Beer, 
347,  34Q- 


If 


8o        Industrial  Histoty  of  the  United  States 


i    i    § 


§    1 
§    I 


§    §    I 
i    i 


MASS. 

H.  HAMPSHIRE 

CONN. 

RHODE  ISLANC 

NEW  YORK 

NDW  JERSEY 

PENN.  * 

DELAWARE  * 

MARYLAND 

VIRGINIA 

N.CAROLINA 

•.CAROUNA 

OEOROIA 


T 


T7~T 


[EL 


155 


ESTIMATED  POPULATION  OF  THE  COLONIES  1  754  AND  U75 
ESTIMATED  POPULATION  '.7S4 
ESTIMATED  INCREASE,  1754-177! 
*  UTIMATI  FOII  PtHNtVLVtNl*  FOK  t7M  INCIUOU  MLAWAIIt 


PI        m        m        m         m        in 

8      §      8      §      i      i 

^    "§    "§    "§    §    § 


1h 

m       w       :* 

§       I        § 
§        §        § 


■    h=t'"-"i''''-i^H!! 

\ 

1 '  r  \    \ 

MEW  YORK 

Sj^S^^^K^^illta 

Tn,    1    [ 

^^^^^^-44,  v^Hi-  5!!l>j^ 

f 

k^-^^-^^^p.  ^-^  .>p.^     Y^ 

VIRGINIA  AND 

v--^^mi 

111 

N.  CAROLINA 

& 

t.  CAROLINA 

::■::::  y-^'MH 

GEORGIA 

bsL 

□  IVn  WEATS  OF  DIFFERENT     fg  ,--„-  -_,     .  ,„-„ 

WHALE  A  COD  OIL       lII  kinOS  IB  COPPER  ORE,  «  IRON 

^COD  FISH  □  MACKEREL  *  SHAD  S  FLAX  SEED  «  HEMP 

E3ma8TE,B0AHD8,ETC.    D  BEES-WAX  ED  OEER  A  OTHER  SKINS 

^SHIPS  BUILT  D  WHALE  BONE  03  TOBACCO 

GlIVE  STOCK  i.  HORSEsES  FLOUR  t.  WHEAT  B9  PITCH,  TAR  «  TURPCNTINI 

^POTASH  S  BCAN6  PEASE  S.  GRAINS  O  RICI 

Liirmco  Bmiscl'^lAnlClS 

CoLONiAi.  Exports,  Annual  Average,  1763-1773 


{ 

i 


Development  tender  British  Control  8i 

elude  his  pursuer  and  brought  her  to  the  surface  again 
when  the  danger  was  past,  none  the  worse  for  a  ducking. 

The  Navigation  Acts.  —  England's  jealousy  of  the  Dutch 
carrying  trade  determined  a  policy  that  has  had  far-reach- 
ing influence  on  British  and  American  shipping.    In  1651 
Cromwell's  Parliament  enacted  a  law  that  was  reenforced 
(1660)  immediately  after  the  Restoration.    The  monopoly 
of  Bntish  trade  was  given  to  vessels  built  and  manned  by 
British  subjects.    No  products  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  America 
might  be  imported  into  Great  Britain  or  any  of  her  do- 
minions except  in  English  ships.    No  European  products 
nught  be  imported  except  in  English  ships  or  in  ships 
owned  m  the  country  where  the  goods  were  produced 
All  imports  must  be  shipped  direct  from  the  country  where 
they  were  grown  or  manufactured,  and  not  from  an  in- 
termediate port.    The  provision  that  vessels  violating  any 
clause  of  this  act  were  hrble  to  seizure  and  confiscation, 
together  with  the  contraband  cargo,  brought  on  war  with 
Holland.    After  the  loss  of  New  Amsterdam,  Holland's 
flounshing  trade  with  the  British  colonies  shrank  to  meager 
proportions,  and  English  vessels,  whether  built  in  Great 
Britain  or  in  America,  fell  heir  to  the  Atlantic  carrying 
trade.    This   practical    monopoly   of   colonial   commerce 
meant  an  advance  in  freight  rates,  since  the  merchant 
ships  were  not  at  first  adequate  to  the  traffic ;  but  the  loss 
was  soon  made  good  to  the  colonies  in  the  new  impulse 
given  to  shipbuilding. 

^If^'f'^  Shipping. -American  shipyards  had  impor- 
tant advantages  over  those  of  Great  Britain.  Materials 
o   the  best  quality  were  to  be  had  at  little  cost.     Masts 

If  tar '.hT  '"■'.'''"' ^'"'P^*'^^  P'"«  ^«^  the  making 
Do^Je^  Tr'"""''.  ""^  ^''"P  ^^^  ^°^dage  was  soon 
and  br?u.hM'  T''!,  ^""'^^'^  '''''''  P«^^^  ^^^  ^^wmills 
:ttfaUr-^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^eshlps 

Var  lalk^tJ^^  H  4^^^^  clSThf 
Yankee  knack  that  made  them  exceUent  shipwrights. 


Beer, 
327-340. 


Weeden, 
I,  232-244. 

Macdonald, 
Select 
Charters, 
106-116. 

Andrews, 
Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.  I. 


Wright, 
Indust.  Evol. 
of  U.S., 
Ch.  I,  II. 
Weeden, 

I.   I20-I2Q, 

252-260. 


Ch.  I.  II. 


I 


!| 
ilMi 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Pnlicy  of 
England, 

Macdonati], 
133-136. 


82        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

New  England  began  to  build  seagoing  vessels  after 
1640  when,  the  tide  of  immigration  from  England  being 
checked,  few  British  ships  came  to  the  Northern  colonies, 
and  it  was  found  necessary  to  provide  for  the  needs  of 
trade.  At  Newbur>-port  and  Salem  on  the  Massachusetts 
coast,  at  New  Bedford,  Newport,  Warren,  and  Providence 
on  Buzzards  and  Narragansett  bays,  men  set  to  work  to  pro- 
vide for  the  expanding  commerce.  The  supply  of  fashing 
smacks,  whaling  \essels,  and  barques  for  the  coastwise 
trade  was  soon  sufficient  for  domestic  needs,  and  ships 
were  even  built  to  sell  abroad.  The  shipyards  at  New 
London  on  the  Thames  and  New  Haven  on  the  Connecticut 
were  equally  busy.  Poughkcepsie  and  Albany  on  the 
Hudson  furnished  vessels  for  the  trade  of  New  York.  At 
Wilmington  and  Philadelphia  on  the  Delaware  and  in  the 
hari)ors  of  the  Chesapeake,  boats  were  building  apace. 
On  the  eve  of  the  Revolution  the  annual  outjiut  of  the 
Atlantic  coast  was  estimated  at  eighteen  thousand  tons. 
New  England  launched  seventy  sail.  New  York  twenty, 
Penns\lvania  twenty-five,  while  Virginia  and  Maryland 
combined  produced  but  thirty  vessels  and  South  Carolina 
but  ten.  In  spite  of  the  ample  supply  of  raw  materials 
the  industry  developed  slowly  in  tiic  South,  because  capital 
and  industrial  enterprise  were  absorbed  in  agriculture, 
and  because  the  Southern  colonies  experienced  no  such 
decline  in  commercial  intercourse  with  Britain  as  forced 
the  men  of  the  North  to  provide  for  the  carrying  trade. 
Planters  sometimes  owned  their  own  vessels,  but  they  were 
usually  content  to  rely  on  the  ship  sent  out  by  their 
London  factor,  or  the  chance  visits  of  the  Yankee  trading 
sloops. 

The  Enumerated  Articles.  ~  The  Cavalier  Parliament 
went  a  step  farther  than  the  Roundheads  in  securing  the 
dominance  of  British  interests  in  America.  A  clause  was 
added  (166,0  to  the  Navigation  Acts  requiring  that  certain 
enumerated  mmmnditiofi  might  be  exported  from  the 
British  colonies  only  to  Great  Britain  and  her  dominions. 
Cotton,  indigo,  fustic,  and  other  dyewoods  used  in  the 


Development  under  British  Control 


83 


making  of  cloth  were  limited  to  the  home  market  in  the 
interests  of  manufactures.     Sugar,   tobacco,   and   sjinger 
might  not  be  exported  direct  to  the  Continent,  but  must 
pass  through  a  British  port  that  the  government  might 
secure  the  customs  duty  and  the  merchants  a  commission 
on  the  transfer.     Thus  far  the  limitation  affected  the  West 
India  trade  chiefly,  since  none  of  these  commodities  excei)t 
tobacco  was  produced  on  the  mainland.     But  other  prod- 
ucts were  added  to  the  list  from  time  to  time  as  British 
interests  seemed  to  demand:    molasses,  rice,  and  naval 
stores  in  1705;    copper,  beaver,  and  other  furs  in  1722;  ^^'^C^' 
whale  fins,  hides,  iron,  lumber,  raw  silk,  and  pearlashes   .\WYork. 
m  1764.     \essels  laden  with  enumerated  goods  must  gi've   "^'  •5^^"-^' 
bond  to  land  the  cargo  in  an  English  port  whence  it  might 
be  shipped  to  the  Continent. 

The  legislation  of  1663  restricted  also  the  import  trade 
Not  only  were  the  staple  products  of  the  colonies  limited 
to  the  English  market,  but  goods  imported  from  Europe 
mu.st  be  brought  via  England  that  duties  and  commissions 
might  be  collected  before  the  cargo  was  reshipped  to 
America.  As  a  concession  to  colonial  interests,  certain 
essential  commodities  were  exempted  from  this  reriuire- 
ment :  salt  for  the  fisheries  of  New  England  might  be  im- 
ported direct  from  Spain  and  Portugal  ;  wines  from  the 
\Vestern  Islands  need  not  make  the  roundabout  journey 
to  an  English  port;  provisions,  horses,  servants,  and 
(later)  linen  might  be  shipped  from  Ireland  without  pay- 
mg  toll  to  the  English  merchants  ^^  ' 

evfdlT^Th  -"'"'r^'""'  f  '.^"    ^«'""-'r^i-l  policy  was    WeCen. 

to  chl.  kI  f  "^  ?  "Z  '"^"^^^"^  shipmaster  was  enabled  }•  ^^'-^4. ; 
to  charge  high  freights  because  of  the  exclusive  prixilege  "'  '^^'-'"'• 

msurcd  his  profits  on  colonial  trade  since  the   major  nirt 
of  exports  and  imports,  whether  from  Europe  or  t^  Or  en 
must  pass  through  British  warehouses.     The  Ength  m  n 

stt'l  "  K  7"''^-'  ^"  "^^  '"^  --  material  ta,>Td 
t.  ^1  ^"'f  ^^  r^^  ^'^'''  ^^  ^'^  P^^^tical  mono  'V-  0I 
the  colonial  market.    That  tlus  policy,  if  actua  Iv'pu 


ii 


I?  s  ;•! 


m 


r-!  n 


Weeden, 
II.  SS6-SS9- 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
III.  44- 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 
405-420- 

Macdonald, 
24S-251. 


84        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

into  execution,  must  work  injury  to  America  by  adding  to 
the  costs  of  transportation,  reducing  the  price  of  what 
the  colonists  had  to  sell,  and  advancing  the  price  of 
what  they  must  buy,  was  not  so  apparent  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  statesmen  who  devised  these  regulations. 
Colonial  industries  escaped  ruin  only  because  the  acts 
were  evaded  by  a  well-developed  system  of  smuggling. 
Many  a  hogshead  of  tobacco  found  its  way  to  Holland  and 
France  without  paying  tribute  at  an  EngUsh  port.  Vessels 
laden  with  freight  from  the  Continent  lay  offshore  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Cape  Ann  for  weeks  together,  while 
dories  and  fishing  smacks  and  lumber  scows  plied  to  and 
from,  conveying  the  contraband  goods  to  Gloucester  and 
Salem.  In  1700  one  third  of  the  trade  at  Boston  and 
New  York  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  law.  Royal 
governors  and  revenue  officers  protested  in  vain,  for  smug- 
gling was  upheld  by  public  opinion,  and  some  of  the  most 
reputable  men  of  the  colonies  were  engaged  in  this  illicit 
business. 

The  Molasses  Act.  —  More  irritating  still  to  the  men 
of  New  England  was  the  legislation  that  concerned  the 
West  India  trade.  Merchants  had  found  greater  profit 
in  commerce  with  the  French  islands  and  Dutch  Guiana 
than  with  the  Barbadoes  and  Jamaica,  for  the  English 
islands  could  not  t?ke  all  the  goods  offered  by  the  Yankee 
traders,  and  profits  had  declined.  Furthermore,  the  French 
sugar  and  molasses  could  be  had  at  lower  prices  than  the 
Jamaican.  The  French  planter  was  the  more  economical 
producer,  and  his  molasses  was  a  drug  in  the  home  market 
because  of  a  law  excluding  rum  from  France.  Hence  a 
brisk  trade  with  these  foreign  colonies  had  developed  to 
the  prejudice  of  Great  Britain's  sugar  islands.  Protests 
were  forwarded  to  the  home  government,  and  Parliament 
undertook  to  remedy  the  grievance  of  the  English  planters. 
A  bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons  (1731)  that  pro- 
hibited the  importation  of  sugar,  molasses,  and  rum  from 
any  foreign  colonies  into  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  or  any 
of  the  American  colonies ;   also  the  exportation  of  horses 


Development  under  British  Control 


85 


and  lumber  to  foreign  plantations.    The  House  of  Lords 
rejected  the  bill,  arguing  that  the  Northern  colonies  could 
not  afford  to  buy  English  manufactures  if  this  market 
for  their  agricultural  products  was  cut  off.    The  result  of 
the  debate  was  a  compromise  measure  that  passed  both 
houses  in  1 733.     "  For  the  better  securing  and  encouraging 
the  trade  of  His  Majesty's  sugar  colonies  in   America," 
practically  prohibitory  duties  were  imposed  on  foreign 
sugars.    Rum  and  spirits  were  to  pay  ninepence  per  gallon 
molasses  and  sirup  sixpence,  sugar  five  shillings  per  hun- 
dredweight.   Trade  with  the  French  West  Indies  would 
have  received  a  serious  check  but  for  the  general  practice 
of  smuggling. 


'1 


'-^i 


Credit  Money 

.s  the  population  of  the  c '  nfes  grew  and  business 
mterests  multiplied,  the  demaiR.  npital  with  which 

to  develop  the  latent  resources  ot  .      country  and  for 
money  to  use  in  trade  steadily  increased.    Neither  warn 
pum,  bullets,  nor  staple  products  could  serve  the  mor 
need  of  these  thriving  communities.    In  1690  Massach 
setts  hit  upon  what  seemed  to  men  of  that  day  an  inex- 
haustible fountain  of  wealth  in  the  issue  of  credit  money 
The  expedition  against  Louisburg  had  failed,  and  the 
so  diers  who  were  to  have  been  rewa  ded  out  of  the  booty 
returned  home  clamorous  for  pay.    The  treasury  was 
empty,  and  the  government  determined  to  meet  its  obli- 

f  mZt  nf  r"^''t  ^1."'  °^  ^^^^^  ^^'^  is^^ed  to  the 
^T  n      K,*°'°°°'  ?"'  ^^^  "°^^'  ^°^^  no  interest  and  were 

as  o  ^he";'  h''  "?  ^'1  '''^'-  ^^'''  ^''  '^^'  skepticism 
a.  to  their  ultimate  value,  and  they  were  received  in  ex- 
change at  but  twelve  and  fourteen  shillings  in  he  pound. 
The  government,  however,  succeeded  in  bringing  the  paper 

7l7eZlr.'''  "^'^'^^  ^'^  ^"'^  receivS  for'  L 
Lsur^^Lt  th.     r^  °T.'"^''  ^°'"'  ^"d  the  public  was 
assured  that  the  notes  would  be  redeemed  in  silver  at  the 
end  of  twelve  months,  but  the  date  of  redempUonwaS 


Wecden, 
•  ■  }79   ;S7- 


>uiim«r. 
Hist    \tt 
Curr.      y, 
14-43. 

Bulloi . 
Pt.  I.  f  t,  i\ 

Davis, 
Current) 
and  Bank;    ,• 
in  Mass.  Bay, 
Pt.  I. 


Dewey, 

Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
1&-30. 

Callendcr, 
63-68. 


p  1 


!    i 


;|i     i 

:  ■ 
it 


86        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

extended  repeatedly  until  the  holders  of  the  notes  became 
discouraged.  Moreover,  the  bills  were  reissued  as  soon  as 
redeemed.  In  1 7 1 1  another  expedition  to  Canada  rendered 
necessary  a  new  issue  of  bills  of  credit.  Massachusetts 
became  responsible  for  notes  to  the  amount  of  £40,000; 
while  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  joining  in  this  expedi- 
tion, met  their  proportion  of  the  expense  by  issues  of 
£10,000  and  £2000,  respectively.  By  1733  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire  had  resort  to  this 
attractive  expedient  for  meeting  expenditures  to  which 
income  from  taxation  was  inadequate,  and  the  Southern 
colonies  soon  followed  the  same  pernicious  example. 
Weeden,  The  issue  of  paper  money  by  a  fully  "    *^'ished  govern- 

il>  473-4QI-  ment  is  a  legitimate  device  for  meeting  f  linancial  emer- 
gency when  resort  to  immediate  taxation  is  impracticable 
and  when  the  obligation  incurred  is  guaranteed  out  of  the 
revenue  of  subsequent  years ;  but  the  expedient  is  attended 
with  grave  dangers.  It  is  always  easier  to  contract  a  debt 
than  to  cancel  it.  The  needy  colonial  governments  de- 
ferred payment  from  tn.  e  to  time  until  public  confidence 
in  the  issue  was  weakenea  and  the  bills  began  to  depre- 
ciate in  value.  The  loss  fell  on  bankers  who  held  the  notes 
and  on  merchants  who  were  obliged  to  receive  them  in 
exchange  for  goods.  Farmers,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
were  purchasing  implements  and  stock,  thought  the  country 
needed  more  of  this  inexpensive  money.  The  supply  of 
capital  was  far  short  of  the  demand,  and  borrowers  were 
obliged  to  pay  interest  as  high  as  eight  and  ten  per  cent. 
It  was  urged  that  the  government  might  suitably  meet  the 
emergencies  of  individual  citizens  by  issuing  bills  of  credit 
for  the  purpose  of  making  loans  at  a  reasonable  rate  of 
interest  on  real  estate  security.  This  seemed  a  brilliant 
plan,  since  it  would  meet  three  crying  needs.  It  promised 
to  furnish  an  income  to  the  government,  capita!  to  land- 
owners, and  currency  to  the  people.  The  argument  was 
amply  convincing  to  the  legislators  of  that  day,  and  in 
1 7 14  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  directed  the  issue 
of  £50,000  to  be  loaned  to  private  persons  at  five  per  cent. 


Development  under  British  Control 


87 


The  loan  was  to  run  for  five  years,  and  the  borrower  under-  Davis, 
took  to  pay  back  one  fifth  each  year,  giving  a  mortgage  Currency 
on  his  land  as  security.    Subsequent  issues  brought  the  fn"Mas"Br 
amount  of  these  Massachusetts  loans  up  to  £260,000.   PtfiL"'  ^^' 
The  other  colonies  quickly  adopted  similar  measures  for 
meeting  the  general  demand  for  capital,  but  the  results 
were  disappointing.    Tha   farmers  were  usually  unable 
to  meet  their  payments,  the  governments  got  into  financial 
difficulties  and  failed  to  redeem  their  obligations,  the  bills 
soon  fell  into  disrepute,  and  the  whole  country  from  New 
Hampshire  to  Georgia  was  flooded  with  a  depreciated 
paper  currency.    The  several  issues  of  twelve  distinct 
legislatures  were  mingled  in  hopeless  confusion. 

The  Board  of  Trade  had  advised  the  colonial  governors 
to  veto  the  bills  authorizing  the  issue  of  credit  money, 
but  their  opposition  was  vain.  The  irate  legislators  re- 
fused to  vote  supplies,  withheld  the  governors'  salaries, 
and  so  forced  their  approval  of  the  popular  measures. 
EtTort  was  made  to  restore  full  purchasing  power  to  the 
discredited  currency  by  declaring  the  notes  legal  tender  in 
payment  of  private  debts  and  by  imposing  heavy  penal- 
ties on  creditors  refusing  to  receive  them.  Business  men 
of  the  colonies  and  merchants  in  London  made  vehement 
protest  against  these  force  laws. 

In  1750  the  paper  money  of  Massachusetts  exchanged 
for  sterling  at  one  eleventh  of  its  face  value,  that  of  New 
Hampshire  at  one  twenty-fourth,  that  of  Rhode  Island  at 
one  twenty-sixth.  The  depreciation  was  less  in  the  Middle 
and  Southern  colonies,  but  everywhere  the  injustice  done 
to  capitalists  and  to  widows  and  minors  dependent  on 
invested  funds  was  reat  and  increasing.  The  year  fol- 
owing  Massachuset  .  redeemed  her  outstanding  bills  in 
the  Sliver  accruing  from  the  Louisburg  indemnity,  and 
soon  after  declared  gold  and  silver  the  only  legal  tender  in 
payment  of  debt,  while  the  credit  monev  of  the  ne-hhorip- 
colonies  was  rigorously  excluded.    The  commercial   ad- 

Z  vT  1  'r?  ''"■'  '^"  ^""^^^  ^"  ^"  access  of  pros- 
perity to  the     silver  colony."     The  West  India  trade  had 


'<  i| 


w 


Ripley, 
Financial 
Hist,  of 
Virginia, 
153-162. 


88       Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

centered  in  Newport ;  much  of  it  was  now  transferred  to 
Boston  and  Salem.  Parliament  reenforced  the  action  of 
Massachusetts  by  prohibiting  (1751)  the  four  Northern 
colonies  from  issuing  more  bills  of  credit  except  in  the 
emergency  of  war.  In  1763  this  prohibition  was  ex- 
tended to  the  remaining  colonies,  and  the  legal  tender 
quality  of  the  bills  was  limited  to  the  period  originally 
fixed  for  their  redemption.  This  restriction  was  dictated 
by  superior  financial  wisdom,  but  it  was  bitterly  resented 
by  the  advocates  of  a  cheap  and  abundant  currency. 


Iron  Dinner  Pot 
Cast  at  Lynn  in  1645 


3 


CHAPTER  IV 
INDUSTRIAL   ASPECTS   OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

Causes 

The  French  and  Indian  Wars  (1754-1763)  had  mo- 
mentous consequences  for  the  American  colonies.    In  the 
Peace  of  Paris,  the  claim  of  France  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  the  fertile  stretch  of  country  between 
the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Alleghanies  was  surrendered 
to  Great  Britain.    The  trading  posts,  forts,  and  mission 
stations  were  abandoned  by  soldier,  priest,  and  voyageur, 
and  the  long  race  rivalry  terminated  in  the  triumph  of 
the  English.     The  Indian  tribes  were  less  to  be  dreaded 
now  that  the  representatives  of  a  hostile  power  no  longer 
mated  their  plundering  raids,  while  the  placing  of  British 
garrisons  at  strategic  points.  Forts  Duquesne,  Niagara,  and 
Detroit,  assured  the  safety  of   the  pioneer  settlements. 
At  the  same  time  Spain  yielded  Florida  in  exchange  for 
Havana,  taken  from  her  during  the  war,  and  the  southern 
irontier  of  the  British  provinces  was  extended  to  the  Gulf 
ihe  Chcrokees  soon  became  convinced  that  the  advance 
of  the  white  man  could  no  longer  be  resisted  and  withdrew 
beyond  the  mountains. 

The  seven  years'  contest  had  fully  demonstrated  the 
capacity  of  the  colonies  for  self-defense.  For  the  later 
ZZT].'^7  ^'^^^^"--hed  twenty-five  thousand 
m  H      '  fu^i'  '""'^'  ^"'^  t^^'^  «"t  «f  appropriations 

Pr^ateL  r^^tf'ji"''"'''"-     ^^^^^  than  four  hundred 
privateers  were  fitted  out  in  American  ports    and  the 

in  no  shght  degree  to  the  final  victory.     These  services 
had  been  gratefully  acknowledged  by  fhe  BriUrh  PaX 

89 


Hulbert, 
Bradclock"s 
Road, 
Ch.  1. 


Maclay, 
Hist.  Am. 
Privateers, 


3 

1 

Lecky,                           1 
Hist,  of 

England,                        | 
III,  Ch.  XII 

Beer, 

British 

Colonial 

Policy, 

Ch.  IX.                            ! 

90 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


I 


Lecky, 


ment,   and   large   appropriations   were   voted   in   partial 
compensation. 

The  Imperial  Regime.  —  Great  Britain  emerged  from 
the  Seven  Years'  War  no  longer  an  island  kingdom,  but  an 
empire.  Her  colonial  possessions,  not  only  in  America, 
but  in  India,  had  been  enormously  increased,  and  hci 
statesmen  were  forced  to  devise  a  system  of  government 
commensurate  vvith  these  new  responsibilities.  A  har- 
monious administrition  of  colonial  interests  and  an  ade- 
quate scheme  of  lonial  defense  were  of  prime  importance. 
^^ecKy  Both  the  lords  of  trade  and  the  king's  cabinet  were  con- 

III,  c'h.  XII.  yinced  that  the  regime  of  "  salutary  neglect  "  must  come 
to  an  end,  and  that  vigorous  measures  must  be  taken  to 
bring  the  American  colonies  under  effective  imperial  su- 
pervision before  they  had  quite  outgrown  such  control. 
The  commercial  regulations,  so  long  flouted  and  evaded, 
must  be  enforced,  a  standing  army  of  not  less  than  ten 
thousand  British  regulars  should  be  stationed  in  America, 
and  its  maintenance  provided,  in  part  at  least,  by  taxes 
imposed  upon  the  colonies.  George  Grenville,  the  prime 
minister,  and  Charles  Townshend,  president  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  were  primarily  responsible  for  the  new  polic\ . 
They  were,  however,  resolutely  supported  by  Cieorge  111. 
a  king  who  took  his  functions  seriously  and  to  whom  the 
royal  prerogatives  were  sacred  and  above  dispute. 

The  authority  of  Parliament  in  the  affairs  of  the  colonii  - 
had  ne\er  been  defined.  The  Americans  were  exercisin.L^ 
a  measure  of  self-government  far  beyond  th;it  enj(nt.i 
by  eighteenth  century  Englishmen.  The  several  coloniiii 
assemblies  were  acciistomed  to  legislate  concerning  al! 
matters  of  internal  interest,  and  their  acts  hatl  been  calkd 
in  (juestion  only  when  they  affected  British  trade.  Internal 
taxes  and  customs  tiulies  for  the  purpose  of  raising  revenut 
had  hitherto  been  laid  by  the  same  authority  and  aiU'lio: 
to  the  e\])enses  of  local  government.  Parliament  luui 
enacted  commercial  regulations  with  a  view  to  securinu 
momtpoly  of  trade  with  the  colonies,  and  duties  had  l)»cii 
imposed  at  colonial  ports  in  order  to  prevent  the  impni- 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S. 
I,  Ch.  VI. 


Rams.ay, 
.•\m.  i<ov.. 
I.Ch.  II.  III. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  91 


% 


^ 


Callender, 
12J-142. 

Macdonald, 
272-281. 

Beer, 

British 

Colonial 

Policy, 

Ch.  XIII, 

XIV. 


Callender, 


92        Industrial  History  of  the  I  'nitcd  States 

tation  of  goods  that  came  into  competition  with  British 
interests.  Internal  taxation,  however,  and  revenue  duties 
had  never  been  attempted.  Grenville's  great  predecessors, 
Walpole  and  Pitt,  had  rejected  proposals  of  this  nature  as 
impolitic.  But  the  war  had  entailed  heavy  burdens; 
Great  Britain  was  staggering  under  a  debt  of  £140,000,000, 
half  of  which  represented  military  expenses  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  the  English  taxpayer  was  beginning  to 
protest.  The  colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  in- 
creasing in  wealth  and  population  with  extraordinary 
rap" ''>y,  and  the  costs  of  local  government  were  light. 
Thc>  were  deemed  abundantly  able  to  meet  some  por- 
tion of  the  expenses  henceforth  to  be  incurred  in  their 

behalf. 

The  Sugar  Act.  —  The  change  of  policy  was  indicated  in 
a  series  of  pariiamentary  enactments  proposing  to  raise  a 
revenue  from  the  "  .\merican  Plantations."  The  duties 
laid  in  1733  on  sugar  and  molasses  brought  into  the  colonies 
from  the  French  and  Spanish  West  Indies,  were  meant  to 
be  prohibitory,  and  no  revenue  was  anticipated  or  secured. 
In  1764  these  duties  were  cut  in  half  in  the  txp  jctation  that 
the  distillers  could  pay  the  rates  without  unduly  raising  the 
price  of  their  rum.  The  preamble  to  the  Sugar  Act  cites 
the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  defense  of  the  colonies 
as  the  reason  for  reducing  the  imposts. 

The  Sugar  .\ct  imposed  duties  on  other  imports  - 
cofTee,  wines,  silks,  cambrics,  and  French  lawns.  The  rates 
were  not  so  high  as  seriously  to  diminish  importation,  and. 
being  levied  (-n  articles  of  luxurious  consumiition,  they  were 
paid  without  much  protest.  Not  st)  the  duty  on  f()reign 
molasses,  for  this  jeopardized  an  important  business  inter- 
est. The  duty  of  threepence  a  gallon,  once  enforced,  ad- 
vanced the  p'ice  of  molasses  twenty  per  cent  and  absork-d 
all  the  profit  of  the  rum  distillers,  since  the  price  of  rum 
could  not  be  increased  in  proportion.  Orders  for  molassts 
were  withheld,  -nd  the  merchants,  having  small  prospect:^ 
of  return  carg»)es  from  the  West  Indies,  detained  their 
vessels  in  {wrt  or  sent  them  elsewhere.     The  lumber  and 


Tiidnstrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


93 


flov.  of 

Muss, 

ig. 


flour,  salt  meat  and  fish,  with  which  the  trader  would 
have  been  loaded,  went  begging  for  purchasers.     Prices 
fell  and  the  farmers  lost  their  best  market.     Workmen 
were  thrown  out  of  employment,  not  only  field  hands  but 
sailors  and  lumbermen,  distillers  and  gri'stmill  employees 
Goyernor  Bernard  of  Massachusetts,  by  no  means  an  ad^   s,«echesof 
vocate  of  colonial  privilege,  was  moved  to  serious  protest   ''       ' 
agamst  the  disastrous  effect  this  ruthless  tax  would  have 
upon  the  fisheries  of  New  England.     "  Our  pickled  fish 
wholly  and  a  great  part  of  the  codfish,  are  fit  only  for  the 
\Vest  India  market.     The  British  Ishmds  cannot  take  off 
one  third  of  the  quantity  caught;  the  other  two  thirds 
must  be  lost  or  sent  to  the  foreign  plantations,  where 

S'.'r.'^fl'  T''"  !"  ^."^h.^"«^-  The  duty  on  this  article 
^^^\\  greatly  dimmish  its  importation  hither,  and  being  the 
oijly  article  allowed  to  be  given  in  exchange  for  our  fish 
a  less  quantity  of  the  latter  will  of  course  be  exported' 
the  o^^vious  efiect  of  which  must  be  the  diminution'of  the 
fish  trade  no   on^'  to  the  West  Indies,  but  to  Europe  - 

fhc  slme  V  '  't.  ''r  "^^'^^'^  '^^'"^  ^^^  P-duce'  of 
hufT!  T^^-  ^^'  .'*'"'^°'"^'  ""^  «^  these  markets  be 
hut,  the  other  cannot  ],e  supplied.  The  loss  of  one  is  the 
>-  of  bo  h  as  the  fishery  must  fail  with  the  loss  of  either  ' 

L^T  J-P^-Ji^'ing  the  business  interests 

of  Smntf  "'•  '"  '!;'  .^^''-^^  ^"^''"  ^^^^''^"  checked  the  inflow 
n  c'l^i  """  '"f  ^'^"^  ^^P^'"^-^'''  "^^■'■^■hants  of  the  silver 
n  e  tth  u  tT'l  '  ""  '"-■«"  '''^i'^ations.  The  requi^ " 
"iini  mat  the  oljnoxious  tax  shoukl  1)0  mvl  in    .      • 

r^^T"  '"n ■"  '^' ''"  'H-  '^"  r:r 

uiTici  recourse  to  snecie  difriml/      i\     "    •  '  '''        ■'"' 


I!  . 

if 


Weeden, 
II,  671. 


McCrady, 
II,  615. 


94        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

breadth  of  the  country  were  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
their  industrial  interests  could  not  be  regulated  to  advan- 
tage by  a  legislature  three  thousand  miles  distai;t,  most 
of  whose  members  knew  nothing  whatever  of  American 
conditions. 

If  anything  more  were  needed  to  provoke  hostiUty  to 
the  Sugar  Act,  it  was  supplied  in  the  provisions  made  for 
enforcement.  The  laxness  of  the  years  in  which  an  ex- 
penditure of  £8000  in  collection  had  produced  a  revenue 
of  £2000  was  now  replaced  by  great  vigilance.  Customs 
officers  were  required  to  reside  at  their  posts  and  to  render 
systematic  accounts  as  guarantee  of  efficient  service. 
Writs  of  assistance  authorizing  collectors  to  search  private 
houses  suspected  of  harboring  smuggled  goods  had  been 
granted  in  1761  to  check  illicit  trade  with  Canada,  and  they 
were  now  used  with  effect  for  inspection  of  the  West  India 
trade.  The  war  vessels  stationed  along  the  coast  were 
ordered  to  assist  in  the  capture  of  smugglers,  and  their 
officers  were  sworn  in  for  the  revenue  service.  The  courts 
of  admiralty  were  empowered  to  try  cases  of  evasion  with- 
out recourse  tu  jury  trial.  Serious  f-iction  was  the  in- 
evitable result  of  these  drastic  measures. 

Several  enactments  calculated  to  lighten  some  of  the 
limitations  on  colonial  trade  were  adopted  in  1765  and 
1767.  The  suspension  of  the  import  duties  on  grains, 
salt  meat,  fish,  and  dairy  products  sent  from  the  American 
colonies  was  probably  suggested  by  scarcity  in  England, 
but  the  concession  was  none  the  less  advantageous  to  the 
farming  communities.  If  continued,  it  might  go  far 
toward  offsetting  the  loss  of  the  West  India  market.  The 
removal  of  the  duty  on  whale  fins  was  intended  to  placate 
New  England.  An  olive  branch  was  offered  to  the  Southern 
colonies  in  the  shape  of  bounties  on  hemp  and  flax  and  raw- 
silk.  American  hides,  too,  were  exempted  from  duty  in 
British  ports.  Rice,  hitherto  an  enumerated  commodity, 
was  not  exempted,  but  it  was  allowed  (i7.?o)  to  go  to  the 
Spanish  colonies  as  well  as  to  European  ports  south  of 
Finisterre. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


95 


■%■ 


i 


The  Stamp  Act.  —  The  amount  of  revenue  derived  from 
the  duties  levied  under  the  Sugar  Act  proved  disappoint- 
ing, but  Grenville  was  hopeful  that  £100,000  a  year  might 
be  secured  by  a  stamp  tax.    Such  a  measure  was  already 
m  successful  operation  in  Great  Britain,  and  it  would 
he  believed,  work  well  in  the  colonies.    In  March   176  c:' 
the  Stamp  Act  passed  both  houses  of  Pariiament  with 
little  comment,  for  few  of  the  members  anticipated  any 
difficulty  m  its  enforcement.    Stamps  varying  in  cost 
from  halfpenny  to  £10  were  required  on  licenses,  deeds 
contracts,  wUls,  etc.,  and  on  everything  printed  for  sale' 
such  as  books,   pamphlets,   almanacs,   ne^vspapers,   and 
playing  cards.    Stamp  distributors  were  appointed,  whose 
duty  it  was  not  only  to  provide  the  stamps  but  to  spy  upon 
delinquents.     They   were   ordered   to   frequent    the   law 
offices  and  the  courts  and  to  visit  the  printers'  shops  and 
report  all  cases  of  noncompliance.     xNeglect  to  affix  the 
proper  stamp  was  punished  by  fines  varying  from  £c  to 
£50,  and  persons  selling  or  hawking  almanacs  or  news- 
papers not  duly  stamped  were  to  forfeit  forty  shillings 
Ihe  penalty  for  counterfeiting  was  death. 

Despite  these  stringent  provisions  the  Stamp  Act  pro- 
duced no  revenue.  Men  refused  to  buy  the  stamps,  pre- 
ferrmg  to  leave  contracts  unrecorded.  Patriotic  lawyers 
declined  to  accept  documents  bearing  the  official  seal 
Newspapers  suspended  issue  or  appeared  with  a  death's- 
^Tnw'Tr^^"  ^Y^  "^  '^^  ^^^^^^  «tamp.  Boxes  con- 
S       .^'"^  ."'"^'"'"^  '^^  ^'"P^rial  authority  were 

courts  were  closed  because  the  stamps  could  not  be  used.   "•  Ch. 
In  Boston  the  stamp  distributor    .as  forced  by  threats  ^^^"^• 

Sed  to  the  r  1  '^'  "^"'^"^"^  S«^-^r'^°r  ^vas 

burned  to  the  ground.     The  citizens  of  New  York  were 

eTry  LwnT^  ^".^'^'^  ^^^^^^'^^  °^  the  hTtelt.    Yn 

en?oL  the  ut"nf    .'  "T  '^'  ^^°'^^  ''  ^^e  olficers  to 

The  s  ?u.^^  th..  M,'''T  ""'"'  ^"<^^-««f""y  resisted, 
inc  struggle  that  followed  cannot  be  accounted  for  on 


' 


Resolutions 
of  the 
Stamp  Act 
Congress, 
Macdonald, 
313-315- 


Bishop, 
I,  363-383- 


Callander, 
143-159- 


Bagnall. 
I.  Ch.Il, 


96        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

economic  grounds  alone.     The  tax  imposed  a  serious  bur- 
den on  certain  business  interests,  but  the  pohtical  prmciple 
involved  was  far  more  important  than  any  money  loss  and 
affected  all  classes.     The  colonists  believed  that  they  were 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  Englishmen  resident  m  the 
British  Isles,  and  that  they  should  not  be  taxed  by  an  as- 
sembly in  which  their  interests  were  not  represented.     In 
this  view  they  were  supported  by  liberal-minded  statesmen 
such  as  Pitt  and  Burke.     George  III  and  his  mmisters,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  scant  sympathy  with  popular  rights, 
whether  in  England  or  America,  and  held  to  their  own 
theory  of  colonial  dependence.     A  series  of  resolutions 
drawn  up  (1765)  by  a  congress  of  delegates  from  mne  of 
the  thirteen  colonies,  was  submitted  to  the  king  and  to 
both  houses  of  Parliament,  but  no  answer  was  vouchsafed, 
Nonintercourse.  —  Argument  having  failed  of  effect,  the 
colonists  sought  to  reach  the  ear  of  the  mother  country 
through  her  trade  interests.     A  form  of  protest  very  like 
the  modern  boycott  was  determined  on.     The  merchants 
of  Boston  signed  an  agreement  to  import  no  goods  from 
Great  Britain  until  the  obnoxious  legislation  should  be 
repealed  and  the  merchants  of  New  York  and  Philadelph.a 
adopted    similar    resolutions.     Retail    dealers    undertook 
in  turn  to  sell  none  of  the  boycotted  imports,  and  thur 
customers,  catching  at  this  chance  of  expressing  their  in- 
dignation, agreed  to  buy  articles  of  domestic  manufacture 
only.     The  Daughters  of  Liberty,  an  enthusiastic  organiza- 
tion of  ladies,  resolved  to  purchase  no  more  British  good 
and  to  wear  only  homespun,  and  these  loyal  Americans 
conducted  spinning  matches  where  prizes  were  offeied  for 
the  best  day's  work.     The  senior  class  in  the  "  university 
at  Cambridge  "  agreed  (1768)  to  take  their  degrees  "dressed 
altogether  in  the  manufactures  of   this   country.       Hie 
students  of  Rhode  Island  College  imitated  this  patriotic 
example  in  the  year  following. 

Meantime  a  systematic  effort  was  being  made  to  develop 

in-  domestic  manufactures  as  a  substitute  for  imported  goocK 

As  early  as  1751  prominent  citizens  of  Boston  had  sub- 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  97 


scribed  capital  to  a  society  for  "  Encouraging  Industry 
and  Employing  the  Poor,"  and  the  General  Court  voted 
£1500  to  aid  in  establishing  a  "  Manufactory  House." 
Similar  societies  were  organized  in  New  York  in  1764,  and 
in  Philadelphia  in  1775.  In  these  and  many  smaller  towns 
linen  and  woolen  cloth  of  a  quality  approaching  the  English 
goods  was  made  up  in  considerable  quantities.  The  supply 
of  flax  and  wool  being  quite  inadequate  to  the  new  demand, 
the  production  of  these  raw  materials  was  urged  upon  the 
farmers.  The  killing  of  lambs  was  discouraged,  and  butch- 
ers exposing  this  meat  for  sale  were  boycotted  by  the 
patriotic. 

The  royal  governors  and  other  British  officers  under- 
rated this  movement,  representing  in  their  reports  to  the 
Board  of  Trade  that  the  actual  achievements  of  the  newly 
established  manufactures  were  slight;  but  the  ministry 
soon  became  convinced  that  the  Americans  were  in  earnest. 
The  demand  for  English  goods  fell  off  alarmingly.  Mer- 
chants dechned  to  take  the  risk  of  shipping  the  tabooed 
commodities,  and  vessels  sailed  with  half  a  cargo  or  stayed 
in  port,  thus  involving  their  owners  in  linancial  difficulties. 
Manufacturers  realized  the  loss  of  the  American  market 
in  diminished  sales.  Unable  to  dispose  of  the  goods  in 
stock,  they  closed  their  i.iills,  and  thousands  of  workmen 
were  thrown  out  of  employment.  Petitions  for  the  repeal 
of  the  legislation  that  had  occasioned  this  business  paralysis 
were  forwarded  to  London,  not  only  from  colonial  legis- 
latures but  from  English  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
Factors  found  the  collection  of  debts  from  America  in- 
creasingly difficult  and  added  their  plea  to  the  general 
protest.  The  Board  of  Trade  was  beset  by  the  angry 
representatives  of  great  business  interests,  and  petitions 
poured  in  at  the  rate  of  a  dozen  a  day. 

The  Repeal.  —  The  Stamp  Act  had  been  adopted  almost  Lecky, 
without  discussion,  but  the  proposition  to  rescind  brought   '"■  Ch-  Xll 
on  one  of  the  lonjTe-t  and  fiercest  debates  that  had  ever 
taken  place  in  the  British  Parliament.     Pitt,   the  con- 
sistent opponent  of  the  imperial  policy,  proposed  that  the 


ill 


98        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Franklin's 

Works, 

III,  407-450- 


Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed  absolutely,  totally,  and  im- 
mediately, and  that  the  reason  for  repeal  should  be  assigned  ; 
namely,  that  it  was  erroneous  in  principle ;  but  even  this 
warm  friend  of  the  colonies  urged  the  assertion  of  Parlia- 
ment's prerogative.  "  Let  the  sovereign  authority  of 
this  country  over  the  colonies  be  asserted  in  as  strong 
terms  as  can  be  devised,  and  be  made  to  extend  to  every 
point  of  legislation  whatsoever;  that  we  may  bind  their 
trade,  confine  their  manufactures,  and  exercise  every  power 
whatsoever  —  except  that  of  taking  their  money  out  of 
their  pockets  without  their  consent." 

Franklin,  then  in  London  as  agent  of  Pennsylvania, 
was  examined  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
as  to  the  temper  of  the  Americans.  He  stated  that  they 
would  never  submit  to  the  new  tax  unless  compelled  by 
force  of  arms.  "  The  Stamp  Act  says,  we  shall  have  no 
commerce,  make  no  exchange  of  property  with  each  other, 
neither  purchase,  nor  grant,  nor  recover  debts;  we  shall 
neither  marr_  nor  make  our  wills,  unless  we  pay  such  and 
such  sums;  and  thus  it  is  intended  to  extort  our  money 
from  us,  or  ruin  us  by  the  consequences  of  refusing  to  pay 
it."  To  submit,  he  argued,  would  involve  the  colonies 
in  future  requisitions,  even  more  onerous  and  arbitrary. 
Early  in  1766  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed  because,  as  the 
preamble  recites,  "the  continuance  of  said  act  would  be 
attended  with  many  inconveniences  and  might  be  pro- 
ductive of  consequences  greatly  detrimental  to  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  these  kingdoms."  But  the  king's 
party  had  no  intention  of  abandoning  the  principle  at  stake. 

Attempt  to  vindicate  Imperial  Authority.  —  Just  before 
the  repeal.  Parliament  passed  the  Declaratory  Act,  stating 
in  explicit  terms  thot  the  "  Colonies  and  Plantations  in 
America  have  been,  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be  subor- 
dinate unto  and  dependent  upon  the  imperial  crown  and 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain."  Esteeming  the  Declaratory 
Act  an  empty  threat,  the  colonists  rejoiced  in  the  with- 
drawal of  the  stamp  tax  5  a  victory  for  constitutional 
rights.    The   South   Carolina  Assembly   voted   to   erect 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


99 


a  statue  of  WiUiam  Pitt  in  grateful  recognition  of  his 
services  in  securing  the  repeal,  the  Quakers  of  Philadel- 
phia celebrated  the  king's  birthday  in  new  suits  made  of 
English  cloth  and  gave  their  homespun  to  the  poor,  while 
in  New  York  and  Boston  the  merchants  renewed  their 
orders  for  English  goods.    The  ultimate  victory   was 
however,  by  no  means  assured.    The  king  and  his  cabinet 
were  more  than  ever  bent  upon  vindicating  the  right  of 
Parliament  to  derive  a  revenue  from  the  colonies.    Late  in 
1766  the  Sugar  Act  was  revised,  the  duties  being  lowered  ; 
that  on  molasses  from  threepence  to  one  penny  a  gallon' 
m  the  expectation  that  the  returns  would  increase.    The 
expenses  of  the  British  garrisons  were  provided  for  in  the 
Mutmy  Act,  which  quartered  the  troops  in  specified  dis- 
tricts, and  required  the  inhabitants  to  furnish  them  fuel 
light,  and  lodgings.     The  irritating  obligation  was  deeply 
resented,  especially  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  Charieston 
where  the  refusal  of  the  people  to  contribute  was  indorsed 
by  the  assemblies. 

This  new  affront  to  imperial  authority  determined  the 
government  on  drastic  measures.  Townshend,  now  the 
leadmg  spirit  in  the  cabinet,  forced  through  Parliament 
three  fateful  enactments.  The  New  York  Assembly  was 
suspended  from  legislative  functions  until  the  Mutiny 
Act  should  be  respected  in  that  province.  Commissioners 
of  customs  were  sent  to  America  with  powers  adequate 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  trade  regulations.  A  new  reve- 
nue tariff  imposed  duties  on  glass,  painters'  colors,  paper, 
tea,  wme,  oU,  and  fruit  imported  into  the  colonies  and  the 
revenue  anticipated  from  these  imposts  duties  (£40,000 

nf^tt.  r''.*°  ^'  ^PP"'^  ^°  ^^^  P^y'^^^t  of  the  salaries 
ot  the  kings  representatives  in  America,  the  governors 
and  judges,  that  they  might  henceforth  be  independent 

not  hi.rr^  II'-    ^^^  ^"'^^^  ^^  th^  Townshend  Act  were 

not  high,  but  they  were  levied  on  articles  of  general  con- 

sump  K>n  and  added  to  the  cost  of  living  fofal    classes 

and  all  sections.    The  proposal  to  render  governor    and  ^^^-'^>' 

judges  independent  of  colonial  legislatures  las  even  more  x^li 


I  i  !  ll 


II 


'A 


■ll- 


Bassett, 
The  Regu- 
lators of 
North 
Carolina. 


if 


Bishop, 
I,  372. 


McCrady, 
II,  Ch. 
XXXIV, 
XXXV. 


lOO      Industrial  History  of  the  United  StaUs 

unpopular  than  provision  for  a  standing  army.  The  men 
appointed  to  colonial  office  were  often  mere  favorites  and 
younger  sons  cf  the  lords  of  trade,  and  they  neglected  their 
duties.  In  the  "  back  country  "  of  the  Carolinas  lawless- 
ness and  crime  were  actually  encouraged  by  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  the  justices. 

Renewal  of  Nonintercourse.  —  Resistance  to  this  new 
manifestation  of  the  imperial  policy  was  even  more  wide- 
spread and  systematic  than  that  called  out  by  the  Stamp 
A.ct.  The  nonimportation  movement  of  1766  had  been 
the  work  of  individuals  or  of  voluntary  associations.  The 
movement  of  1767  and  1768  was  sanctioned  by  political 
bodies  and  was  therefore  official.  The  men  of  Boston  in 
town  meeting  assembled  resolved  that  "  the  excessive  use 
of  foreign  superfluities  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  present 
distressed  state  of  this  town,  as  it  is  thereby  drained  of  its 
money ;  which  misfortune  is  likely  to  be  increased  by  means 
of  the  late  additional  burdens  and  impositions  on  the  trade 
of  tLe  Province,  which  threaten  the  country  with  poverty 
and  ruin."  Citizens  were  urged  to  abstain  from  the  pur- 
chase of  the  taxed  commodities.  The  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  indorsed  Boston's  action  by  the  resolution 
that  "  this  House  will  by  all  prudent  means,  endeavor 
to  discountenance  the  use  of  foreign  superfluities  and  to 
encourage  the  manufactures  of  this  province."  Similar 
resolutions  were  adopted  by  the  legislatures  of  Connecticut, 
Virginia,  New  York,  Maryland,  and  North  Carolina.  The 
artisans  of  Charleston  under  the  lead  of  Christopher 
Gadsden  assembled  under  the  Liberty  Oak  and  adopted 
nonimportation  resolutions  which  were  enforced  by  boycott 
of  merchants  importing  English  goods.  More  backward 
colonies,  such  as  New  Hampshire  and  Georgia,  and  more 
consers'ative,  such  as  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania, 
entered  into  the  movement  later,  and  under  compulsion. 
Committees  of  correspondence  and  supervision  kept  watch 
upon  imports  and  threatened  refractor>'  parties,  whether 
colonies  or  individuals,  with  nonintercourse. 

The  agreement  to  abstain  from  the  purchase  of  English 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         loi 

goods  was  effectively  maintained  in  the  colonies  where 
manufactures  were  sufficiently  developed  to  supply  im- 
mediate needs.  The  value  of  English  goods  imported  into 
New  England  was  £410,707  in  1768  and  but  £207,993 
in  1769.  New  York  imported  £18^,930  worth  of  goods 
in  1768  and  but  £74.918  in  the  following  year.  The 
patriots  of  Pennsylvania  succeeded  in  reducing  her  im- 
ports from  £432,107  in  1768  to  £199,916  in  1769.  But 
in  the  Southern  colonies   the  most  strenuous  measures 


1    1        ! 

1 

1 

A 

£3,000,000 

i 
1 

/ 

\ 

/ 

£2,000,000 

N 

^ 

/ 

\/ 

^ 

—  1 

\ 

/ 

V 

1 

— 

~.. 

! 

O.A 

— 

— --■ 

--— 

\ 

1 

\ 
\ 

i 

\ 

e 

1  - 
1 

^ 

£«, 000,000 


£3,000,000 


£2,000,000 


:i, 000,000 


— — ^—  IMPORTS  FROM  GREAT  BRITAIN'TO  THE  COLONIES 
"■"""■"  EXPORTS  FROM  THE  COLONIES  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Trade  nETWEEN  the  American  Colonies  and  Great  Britain 

FROM   1764  TO  1776 

could  not  prevent  considerable  clandestine  trade.  Plant- 
ers' supplies  were  expressly  excepted  from  the  South 
Carolina  boycott.  Importation  of  Enghsh  goods  actually 
advanced  between  1768  and  1769;  in  Maryland  and 
Virgima  from  £475,984  to  £488,362,  in  the  Carolinas 
from  £289,868  to  £306,600,  in  Georgia  from  £56,562  to 
-5^,340  The  total  falling  off  of  £521,129  was,  however, 
sufficie..  .0  produce  a  serious  impression  on  English  in- 
dustnec.  A  corresponding  shrinkage  of  £191,248  in  ex- 
ports to  the  British  Isk  s  advanced  the  price  of  ./American 
goods  to  the  English  consumer  and  manufacturer  The 
experience  of  1765  was  renewed.    The  seaports  and  the 


I02      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


P 

A 


factory  towns  sent  remonstrances  i'.  \t^  government  and 
besieged  the  House  of  Commons  ith  petitions,  ind  the 
ministry  was  finally  obliged  to  y  !d  The  Tovnshend 
Act  w?s  repealed  (1770),  but  the  tax  •  f  *hreepence  a  pound 
on  tea  was  retained  as  evidence  of  imperial  authority. 

The  Tea  Tax.  —  Placated  by  the  seeming  victory,  the 
agitators  relaxed  the  boycott  on  English  goods.  The 
merchants  gladly  renewed  their  orders,  and  consumers 
rejoiced  in  the  prospect  of  finer  cloth  than  domestic  looms 
could  produce ;  but  the  embargo  on  Enghsh  tea  was  con- 
tinued. It  had  been  the  policy  of  the  government  to  assure 
a  monopoly  in  this  popular  beverage  to  the  East  India 
Company.  All  teas  destined  for  the  colonies  must  pass 
through  an  English  port  and  pay  duiy  there  en  route  to 
America.  The  colonists  had  bet-n  accustomed  to  evade 
tL's  irksome  regulation,  and  fully  nine  tenths  of  the  million 
and  a  half  pounds  annually  consumed  in  America  was 
brought  directly  from  Holland  or  the  Orient.  The  re- 
strictive regulation  was  now  enforced,  but  to  render  this 
monopoly  more  palatable  the  tax  of  a  shiUing  a  pound, 
hitherto  collected  at  the  British  customhouses,  was  re- 
mitted in  case  t^e  tea  was  consigned  to  an  American  im- 
porter. The  East  India  Company's  tea  might  thus  pay 
the  colonial  duty  and  yet  retail  at  a  lower  price  than  that 
charged  for  the  smuggled  article.  The  revenue  antici- 
pated (£16,000  per  annum)  would  be  but  one  fourth  of 
the  sum  remitted  in  drawbacks,  but  the  British  govern- 
ment was  determined  to  a.ssert  its  authority  despite  finan- 
cial loss.  The  colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  were  equally 
determined  to  vindicate  their  right  to  self-taxation.  Three 
shiploads  of  tea  arriving  in  Boston  harbor  in  December, 
1773,  were  boarded  by  a  party  of  prominent  citizens,  and 
more  than  three  hundred  chests  were  thrown  into  the  sea. 
At  New  York  and  Philadelphia  the  ships  were  not  allowed 
to  land  their  cargoes  and  were  forced  to  carry  the  tea  back 
to  London.  At  Charleston  the  tea  was  taken  from  the  con- 
signees and  stored  in  cellars,  w*iere  it  molded  and  became 
II  nsalabie.   Later  importations  were  thrown  into  the  harbor. 


Indus trirJ  Aspects  c  '  the  Revolution         103 

It  was  evident  that  the  Americans  objected  to  the  tax 
on  tea  as  strenuously  as  to  the  stamp  tax,  and  that  it  could 
be  collected  only  by  force.  Pitt  and  Burke  urged  con- 
ciliatory measures,  but  the  king's  ministers  believed  that 
there  was  no  choice  between  the  enforcement  of  the  law 
and  complete  surrender,  and  they  determined  on  enforce- 
ment. Boston,  where  defiance  had  been  most  outspoken, 
was  selected  as  an  example.  The  port  was  declared  closed 
(March,  1774)  "  because  the  commerce  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  cannot  be  safely  carried  on  there  nor  the  customs 
payable  to  his  majesty  duly  collected."  Landing  and 
shipping  of  merchandise  was  forbidden  after  June  first, 
and  men-of-war  were  detailed  to  maintain  a  blockade.' 
The  customhouse  was  removed  to  Salem.  Since  the  busi- 
ness prosperity  of  Boston  depended  almost  wholly  on 
commerce,  the  blow  threatened  her  very  existence. 

The  Boycott  Complete.  —  The  cause  of  the  beleaguered 
city  was  immediately  espoused  all  along  the  coast.     Salem 
offered  to  Boston  merchants  the  free  use  of  her  wharves 
and  warehouses.    Subscriptions  for  the  relief  t  f  the  un- 
employed of  the  stricken  city  were  taken  up  in  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  while  the  planters  of  Virginia,  Maryland, 
and  South  Carolina  sent  contributions  of  corn  and  rice.' 
A  solemn  league  and  covenant  was  signed  by  patriotic 
citizens  who  bound  themselves  to  abstain  from     ,.   nter- 
course  with  Great  Britain  until  the  coercive  .      ,lution 
should   be   repealed.    The   Virginia   Assembly    (August, 
1774)  resolved  that  no  English  goods  should  be  im|X)rted 
inio  that  province  after  cargoes  already  ordered  had  been 
received.    Vigilance  committees  were  appointed  to  en- 
torce  this  agreement,  and  offenders  were  to  be  blacklisted 
as  the  enemies  of  liberty.    This  third  suspension  of  com- 
merce with  Great  Britain  was  generally  opposed  by  the 
merchants,  who  had  learned  by  experience  how  heavy 
were  the  lo.sses  involved.     In  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
r!!r  '*^' j!'>'^''^^  P^^ty  ^'a«  strong,  opposition  to  the 
CO  t!y  expedient  was  dctcrminca.  and  since  these  ports 
held  a  pivotal  position,  their  defection  would  destroy  the 


\  11 


il 


i  II 
til 


!  I 


:    1 


McCrady, 
II.  764-770- 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S. 

I.  .iOv. 

S0O-5JO. 


104      Itu' tstrtal  History  of  the  United  States 

effe.  :  of  the  boycott.  The  embargo  policy  was  hotly  de- 
bated in  the  Continental  Congress  convened  at  Philadel- 
phia in  September,  but  in  the  end,  a  nonintercourse  and 
nonconsumption  resolution  was  adopted  to  take  effect 
December  i,  1774.  The  prohibition  covered  all  EngUsh 
goods,  East  India  Company  teas,  wines  that  had  paid 
duty  in  British  ports,  sugar  and  molasses  from  the  British 
West  Indies,  and  slaves  brought  to  the  colonies  in  British 
vessels.  In  case  the  protested  grievances  had  not  been 
redressed  in  the  interval,  exportation  of  colonial  products 
to  Great  Britain  was  to  cease  after  September  10,  1775. 
(Rice  was  exempted  from  this  embargo  at  the  request  of 
the  South  Carolina  planters.)  It  was  confidently  expected 
that  the  inconvenience  and  distress  occasioned  in  England 
by  the  loss  of  the  colonial  market  would  bring  the  govern- 
ment to  terms.  The  boycott  was  more  vigorously  en- 
forced than  in  1765  or  in  1768,  and  English  imports  de- 
clined from  £2,590,437  in  1774  to  £201,162  in  1775;  but 
without  effect.  The  king  and  his  ministers  were  con- 
vinced that  to  yield  now  would  be  to  forfeit  for  all  time 
the  claim  to  imperial  authority. 

Nonexportation  was  attempted  in  due  turn,  but  this 
phase  of  the  nonintercourse  policy  was  even  more  difficult 
to  enforce.  In  the  determination  to  find  a  market  for  their 
produce,  planters  evaded  the  vigilance  committees  quite 
as  skillfully  as  they  had  evaded  the  king's  officers. 
Virginia  sent  £73,000  worth  of  tobacco  to  England  in 
1775,  and  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  £25,000  worth  of 
rice  and  indigo.  This  was,  however,  but  one  tenth  of 
the  cx,)orts  of  the  previous  year.  The  shrinkage  in  total 
exports  between  1774  and  1776  amounted  to  £1,269,882. 
The  sudden  collapse  of  the  American  trade,  which  had 
hit!  erto  meant  one  third  her  maritime  commerce,  produced 
serious  indu.strial  disturbance  in  England,  but  the  effect  for 
the  colonies  was  even  more  disastrous.  Merchants  wi  tr 
ruined,  farm  produce  glutted  the  domestic  markets,  and 
workmen  suffered,  for  many  industries  were  at  a  standstiii. 
On  the  very  eve  of  th  Revolution  the  accustomed  supply 
of  arms  and  an  munition  was  suddenly  cut  off. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         105 

Far  from  abandoning  the  principle  expressed  in  the 
Declaratory  Act,   Parliament  proclaimed   Massachusetts 
in  a  state  of  rebellion  and  ordered  additional  troops  to 
America.     The  fishermen  of  New  England  were  denied 
access  to  the  Grand  Banks,  and  at  the  same  time  (March, 
1775)  trade  was  interdicted  between  the  rebellious  colonics 
and  all  other  ports  than  those  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland, 
and  the  British  West  Indies.     Nine  months  later  all  inter- 
course with  the  colonies  was  prohibited.     American  ves- 
sels when  captured  on  the  high  seas  were  declared  forfeit, 
their  cargoes  were  liable  to  seizure,  their  seamen  might  be 
impressed  into  the  royal  navy.     In  the  following  March 
the  Continental  Congress  authorized  American  vessels  to 
fit  out  as  privateers  and  so  to  carry  on  an  armed  trade  in 
defiance  of  the  embargo.     "  The  die  is  now  cast,"  wrote 
the  king.     "  The  colonies  must  either  submit  or  triumph." 
'  '     colonists,  on  their  part,  were  being  driven  to  the  con- 
yiLtion  that  nothing  short  of  complete  separation  would 
insure  their  interests  against  prejudicial  legislation. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  1776.  —  The  consistent 
endeavor  of  t'  ■  British  government  to  render  the  colonies 
a  source  of  pro.it  to  the  mother  country  had  imposed  in- 
tolerable shackles  on  industrial  development.  Colonial 
trade  had  been  monopolized  by  British  ships,  colonial 
products  had  been  limited  to  English  ports,  colonial  manu- 
factures had  been  restricted  or  suppressed.  The  fishing 
villages  of  New  England  wer^  impoverished  by  the  Sugar 
Act,  and  the  rum  distilleries  stood  idle.  At  the  silent 
wharves  of  Boston  the  merchantmen  lay  accumulating 
Inirnacles  in  place  of  profits.  In  the  forests  of  Maine  and 
New  Ham|)shire  hundreds  of  m?st  trees,  marked  with  the 
l)road  arrow  that  reserved  them  for  the  royal  navy,  rotted 
wastcfully  away.  .Again  and  again  conflicts  broke  out 
between  the  sur\'eyor-general  of  the  king's  woods  and  the 
lumbermen  who  held  by  "swamp  law."  The  farmers 
ot  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  protested  vigorously 
agamsi  iht-  iiniwsltion  of  quitrents  and  manorial  obliga- 
tions.   In  the  "  back  country  "  of  the  Carolinas  the  regu- 


Restraining 

Act, 

Macdonald, 

368-374, 

3Q1-396. 


Pitkin, 

Hist,  of  U.S.. 
I.  495-497- 


Address  to 
the  People 
of  (Jreat 
Britain, 
Pitkin. 
Hist,  cf 
I'.S.,  I, 
473-482- 


I' 
til 


t  !| 


Ramsay, 
History  of 
South 
Carolina, 
I,  Ch.  VI. 


f 


Callender, 


II      f 


1 06      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

lators,  weary  of  misrule,  had  taken  matters  into  their 
own  hands  and  declared  the  county  of  Mecklenburg  in- 
dependent of  Great  Britain.  The  grievances  of  the 
colonists  were  not  theoretical,  but  practical  and  urgent. 
One  fourth  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepsnd- 
ence  were  merchants  or  shipmasters.  John  Hancock, 
the  first  delegate  to  affix  his  signature  to  that  momentous 
document,  was  known  as  the  prince  of  smugglers,  and  was 
even  then  contesting  suits  in  the  admiralty  courts  that 
involved  £100,000  in  penalites. 

Industrial  Consequences 

In  the  seven  years'  conflict  that  followed  on  the  asser- 
tion of  independence,  the  chances  of  success  seemed  about 
equally  divided.  England  was  handicapped  by  distance 
from  the  scene  of  war.  Soldiers,  arms,  and  equipment 
must  be  transported  across  three  thousand  miles  of  stormy 
sea.  The  mother  country  was,  moreover,  heavily  burdened 
by  an  unprecedented  national  debt.  Her  resources  in 
the  way  of  taxes  and  customs  revenue  were,  however, 
assured,  for  she  had  a  standing  army  in  thorough  training 
and  the  largest  and  best  equipped  navy  afloat.  The 
seceding  colonies  had  no  treasury  and  no  navy.  Their 
fighting  force  was  made  up  of  mUitia  companies  lur- 
nished  in  uncertain  levies  by  thirteen  distinct  state  gov- 
ernments. The  troops  knew  little  of  army  discipline  and 
were  seldom  adequately  provisioned;  but  the  Americans 
were  good  marksmen,  and  they  excelled  the  British  in 
physical  endurance  and  in  the  self-reliance  developed  by 
the  vicissitudes  of  pioneer  life.  They  had  the  great 
advantage  of  fighting  over  well-known  country  and  under 
familiar  conditions,  an  advantage  fully  offset,  to  be  sure, 
by  the  material  losses  necessarily  sustained  in  the  country 
that  mu"-*  submit  to  the  ravages  of  war. 

The  most  serious  weakness  of  the  seceding  colonies  was 
their  lack  of  union.  The  only  central  government  was 
the  Continental  Congress,  —  a  deliberative  body  with  no 


Ramsay, 
Am.  Rev., 
II,  App.  IV. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         xq-j 

constitutional  authority  to  lay  taxes  or  to  levy  troops 
Congress  might  requisition  men  and  supplies,  but  had  not 
power  to  enforce  compliance.  Each  state  sent  its  militia 
mto  the  field  when  its  own  boundaries  we-  invaded  but 
was  loath  to  furnish  troops  for  a  distant  campaign  'xhe 
taxes  levied  by  the  state  legislatures  were  expended  by 
the  same  authority,  and  they  were  slow  to  make  over  any 
of  their  scanty  revenues  to  the  general  treasury  The 
ultimate  success  of  the  colonists  was  due  to  political 
divisions  m  England  and  the  French  alliance,  rather  than 
to  the  strength  of  their  own  defense. 

National  Bankruptcy.  -  The  long  controversy  had  bred 
m  the  Americans  a  hearty  abhorrence  of  taxation.    The 
people  who  had  repudiated  the  authority  of  Parliament 
would  not  readily  respond  to  the  levies  of  the  state  legis- 
latures.   Both  state  and  continental  governments  were 
obliged,  therefore,  to  resort  to  the  issue  of  bills  of  credit 
m  order  to  meet  the  e.xpenses  of  the  initial  campaigns. 
This  easy  method  of  meeting  financial  obligations  had  been 
discredited  m  the  eyes  of  business  men  by  previous  ex- 
perience of  such  issues  and  by  the  commercial  advantages 
Massachusetts  had  derived  from  the  resumption  of  specie 
currency^    The  mass  of  the  people,  however,  were  con- 
vinced that  there  need  be  no  difficulty  in  gi^^ng  this  fiat 
money  full  purchasing  power.     It  was  cheap  and  con- 
venient and  would  remain  in  circulation,  whereas  the  un- 
patriotic British  coins  persisted  in  abandoning  the  country 
^..x  of  the  CO  onies  had  already  issued  paper  money  before 
the   outbreak    of    hostilities.     When    Congress    Lumed 
responsibility  for  the   general    defense,    the   New   Yo  k 
Assembly  forwarded  recommendations  for  the  issue  of 
bills  of  credit,  ^since  it  is  clearly  impossible  to  r2L  any 
sum  adequate  by  tax."     "  Do  vnn  thJni,  "  j  % 

the  deleirates  in  thtr^.*-  ^°  y°"  ^"ink,    argued  one  of  Webster. 

In  June.  1775,  one  week  after  the  appointment  of  the 


BoUes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
I.  Bk.  I, 
Ch.  Ill,  IX, 
X. 


Callender, 
180-195. 


11 


Dewey, 
Ch.  II. 

White, 
Money  and 
Banking, 
Bk.  II, 
Cli.  II. 

Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
43-54- 
Ramsay, 
Am.  Rev. 
App.  II. 

Sumner, 
Financier 
and  Finances 
of  the 
Am.  Rev., 
I,  Ch.  IV. 


1 08      Industrial  History  of  tlie  United  States 

commander-in-chief  of  the  Continental  army,  Congress 
authorized  the  issue  of  $2,000,000  in  bills  of  credit.  These 
notes  entitled  the  t?arer  tn  receive  a  given  number  of 
Spanish  milled  dollars  at  a  time  and  place  not  specified. 
The  responsibility  for  redeeming  the  notes  was  distributed 
among  the  several  colonies  in  proportion  to  population, 
and  each  colony  was  to  meet  its  respective  obligation  in 
four  annual  payments  dating  from  November  30,  1779. 
Another  $1,000,000  was  issued  in  July  and  $3,000,000  mort- 
before  the  end  of  the  year.  Early  in  1776,  when  news 
came  that  the  EngUsh  government  was  to  send  over  foreign 
mercenaries,  still  greater  appropriations  were  called  for, 
and  Congress  had  ordered  the  issue  of  $14,000,000  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed.  The  bills, 
imperfectly  guaranteed  and  bearing  no  interest,  were  less 
acceptable  to  government  creditors  than  specie,  and 
Congress,  well  aware  that  further  issues  would  weaken 
public  confidence  in  the  redeemability  of  the  notes,  cast 
about  for  other  means  of  meeting  military  expenses. 

In  October,  1776,  a  loan  was  authorized.  Bonds  were 
issued  to  the  amount  of  $5,000,000,  bearing  interest  at  the 
rate  of  four  per  cent.  They  did  not  find  a  ready  sale.  The 
rate  of  interest  was  too  low  and  the  credit  of  the  j,o'  jrn- 
ment  too  uncertain  to  render  this  an  attractive  invest- 
ment. Later  bond  issues  bore  six  per  cent  interest,  but 
capitalists  were  loath  to  risk  their  money  on  so  dubious 
a  venture.  Benjamin  Franklin  succeeded  in  borrowing 
$6,000,000  from  France,  and  John  Jay  undertook  to  secure- 
aid  from  the  Spanish  government ;  but  less  than  $35,000,- 
000  was  derived  from  loans  at  home  and  abroad.  In 
November,  1776,  Congress  had  resort  to  the  then  entirely 
honorable  expedient  of  raising  money  by  a  government 
lotteiy.  One  hundred  thousand  tickets  were  printed  and 
placed  on  sale,  and  the  sanguine  authors  of  this  scheme 
hoped  to  secure  $1,500,000  in  specie;  but  the  prizes, 
treasury-  certificate?  j)ayablc  in  five  years  with  intercut  :'.t 
four  per  cent,  were  not  sufficiently  alluring  to  delude  many 
into  taking  lots.     In  December  of  this  same  year  Con- 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         109 

gress  requested  the  state  legislatures,  with  whom  the 
taxing  power  then  rested,  to  raise  the  much  needed  revenue 
from  their  several  constituencies ;  but  the  state  authorities 
had  their  own  expenses  to  meet,  and  had  reason  to  dread 
the  storm  that  might  follow  an  attempt  to  levy  taxes.  No 
more  than  $6,000,000  was  ever  derived  from  the  state 
requisitions.  Congress  then  recommended  the  state 
governments  to  confiscate  the  projierty  of  British  sym- 
pathizers to  the  needs  of  the  Revolution  and  to  authorize 
the  payment  of  debts  due  British  merchants  into  their 
own  treasuries  and  in  paper  money.  Some  $16,000,000 
was  secured  in  this  unworthy  fashion. 

In  October,  1778,  when  $63,000,000  in  bills  of  credit 
had  been  issued  and  one  dollar  in  specie  was  worth  five  in 
paper,  Congress,  finding  this  a  costly  method  of  provision- 
mg  the  army,  urged  the  several  states  to  furnish  supplies 
in  kind     Virginia  was  requested   to  contribute  twenty 
thousand  barrels  of  Indian  corn,  and  the  Northern  states 
sent  flour,  beef,  rum,  and  hay.     The  cost  of  transporting 
these  stores  was  often  great,  since  the  army  might  be  dis- 
tant from  the  source  of  supply,  and  the  device  was  soon 
abandoned.     The  state  governments  did,   however,   au- 
thorize the  commissioners   to  seize  food,  fuel,  and  cloth- 
ing wherever  needed,  giving  certificates  of  indebtedness 
in  e.xchange.     This  most  irritating  and  unequal  form  of 
requisition  was  only  justified  by  the  extremities  to  which 
he  army  had  been  reduced  in  the  previous  winter  at 
V  alley  Forge.     It  was  a  hand-to-mouth  policy,  and  placed 
he  American  authorities  in  unfortunate  comparison  with 
he  British  commissariat,  where  supplies  were  purchased 
in  good  gold  and  silver  coin. 

All  other  expedients  proving  inadequate.  Congress  was 
hnally  torced  to  fall  l,ack  on  the  emission  oi  bills  of  credft 
nthefirst  e,ght  months  of  1779,  $,00,000,000  was  issued, 
and  the  purchasing  power  of  the  paper  dollar  declined  from 
one  SIX  h  to  one  twentieth  that  uf  specie  toward  the  os^ 
of  that  year.  In  September  Congress,  aghast  at  the 
prospect  of  rapid  depreciation,  resolved   o  iLt  the  total 


Sabine, 
Loyalists  of 
Am.  Rev., 
I,  Cli.  XI. 
XII. 

Van  Tyne, 
Loyalists  in 
Am.  Rev., 
Ch.  XII, 
XIII. 


fl 


I  1 


Public 
Papers  of 
John  Jay, 
I,  218-236. 


i  i 


Schuckers, 
Revolution- 
ary Finances, 
ISS- 


Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
SS-60. 


no      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

issue  to  $2cx>,ooo,ooo,  and  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
the  American  people  stating  the  guarantee  for  the  ultimate 
redemption  of  the  notes.  John  Jay  argued  that  the  fulfill- 
ment of  this  obligation  was  pledged  on  the  faith  of  the  con- 
federated states,  each  of  which  had  assumed  its  due  portion 
of  the  debt.  The  resources  of  the  country  were  limitless, 
population  was  increasing  with  extraordinary  rapidity, 
the  tax-paying  capacity  of  the  states  would  be  amply 
sufficient  to  meet  the  payments  before  they  fell  due.  Even 
though  the  war  debt  should  amount  to  $300,000,000,  the 
quota  falling  upon  the  individual  citizen  would  be  slight. 
It  was  inconceivable  that  an  obligation  assumed  under 
circumstances  so  solemn  and  compelling  should  ever  be 
repudiated.  "  A  bankrupt,  faithless  republic  would  be  a 
novelty  in  the  political  world.  .  .  .  Th?  pride  of  Amer- 
ica revolts  from  the  idea;  her  citizens  know  for  what 
purposes  these  emissions  were  made,  and  have  repeatedly 
plighted  their  faith  for  the  redemption  of  them ;  they  are 
to  be  found  in  every  man's  possession,  and  every  man  is 
interested  in  their  being  redeemed. "  Eloquent  and  forceful 
as  was  the  appeal,  it  could  not  stay  the  decline  in  value 
of  the  currency.  Before  the  enf'  of  the  year  a  paper  dollar 
was  worth  but  two  or  three  cents  in  specie,  and  Congress 
had  been  obliged  to  issue  notes  up  to  the  $200,000,000 
limit.    No  further  issues  were  authorized. 

The  forty  several  emissions  of  Continental  currency 
amounted  to  $241,552,780,  but  since  notes  were  occasionally 
cancelled,  probably  no  more  than  $200,000,000  were  in  circu- 
lation at  any  one  time.  In  this  respect,  therefore.  Congress 
kept  to  its  resolution,  but  not  so  with  the  pledge  to  redeem. 
The  notes  were  never  taken  up  at  their  face  value.  In 
November,  1780,  when  the  bills  were  exchanging  for  specie 
at  one  hundred  to  (ine.  Congress  recommended  the  states 
to  recall  them  in  exchange  for  bills  of  new  tenor  at  the  rate 
of  forty  to  one,  and  some  $119,400,000  were  thus  canceled. 
In  1790,  $6,000,000  more  were  taken  at  the  United  State-- 
Treasury  in  payment  on  government  bonds  at  the  rate 
of  one  hundred  to  one.    The  remaining  $75,000,000  were 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         1 1 1 

lost  or  destroyed  as  worthless  paper.  The  depredation  of 
the  Continental  currency  was  accelerated  by  state  issues 
to  the  amount  of  $209,524,000.  These  bills  circulated 
qujte  as  freely  as  the  congressional  notes,  and  brought  the 
volume  of  currency  up  to  $450,000,000,  a  grand  total 
greatly  m  excess  of  the  business  needs  of  the  country 
The  dechne  m  purchasing  power  had  been  due  almost  as 
much  to  excessive  issue  as  to  the  lack  of  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  redemption  of  the  notes. 

The  effect  of  meeting  the  mUitary  emergency  by  credit 
money  was  equivalent  to  a  heavy  and  unequally  distrib- 
uted tax,  the  greater  part  of  which  was  borne  by  the  im- 
mediate creditors  of  the  government.    The  obligations 

Z^T  "  '"''  ^'  ^^""^'  ^«^"^'  -d  certificftes  o 
If  whfrf'''  ^'"^"nted  to  $650,000,000,  fully  one  third 
of  which  was  repudiated.    If  specie  had  been  available 

^il^Z""^*^^  '^^^  '^^'^  -'' ''  ^^  -^-'^ 

It  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  the  central  govern- 
ment, as  then  constituted,  could  have  met  the  ffnan-ial 

Z!fJl  '"  ^"^•°'''''"  ^'^y-  ^^'  ^^bates  of  the  period 
how  a  full  recognition  of  the  dangers  of  the  road  on  which 
the  government  had  entered.  The  limit  of  $200,000000 
was  o„g,„,„  ^,t  f„^  ^j^^  ^^.^^.^^  ^^  Continental  c^e'^ 
as  the  point  that  might  not  be  passed  in  safety.     Congress 

Stion  t?-"""'"^U^  "^^^^--  their  bills  from 

e  u^  iv  1  '•         /"  •''^"'-    ^^"  '^^^'  authorities  were  in 

qually  serious  straits  and  quite  as  unable  to  get  back  to 

hfvXeoUhe  """'"'^^  '''''''  ^^'^  made'to  susLn 
csolvS  that  ^'   T'  "'^'''^  ^"  ^'"'"  ^°"«^^««  ^"'^'^nly 


Pitkin, 
Stat.  View, 
26,  27. 

BoIIes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
n,  Bk.  I, 
f.h.  III. 


McLaughlin, 
Confedera- 
tion and 
Constitution, 
Ch.  IV. 


>  If 

!     1 


if 


hi: 


n 


HS 


BoUes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
I,  Bk.  I, 
Ch.  XII. 


112      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

states  declared  the  bills  legal  tender  in  payment  of  all 
debts,  public  and  private,  and  imposed  heavy  penalties 
on  persons  refusing  to  receive  them ;  men  preferred  for- 
feiting their  propeiiy  outright  to  receiving  worthless  bills 
in  exchange.  In  vain  did  price  conventions  undertake 
to  check  the  rise  of  prices  by  fixing  on  a  maximum  limit  for 
wages  of  labor,  boat  and  carriage  fares,  inn  charges,  prices 
of  manufactures,  farm  produce,  and  imports ;  the  scale 
had  to  be  advanced  from  year  to  year  to  keep  pace  with 
the  decline  in  the  value  of  money,  until  the  rates  of  17S0 


BoUes, 
Finaneia! 
Hist,  of  U.S.. 
I,  Bk.  I, 
Ch.XI.XVI. 


1775 


1776 


1777 


1778 


1779 


1780 


$1.00 
$.75 
$.50 
$.25 


"'i 

! 

VALUE 

IN  GOLD 

\ 

! 

i 

$150,000,000 
$125,000,000 
$100,000,000 
$75,000,000 
$50,000,000 
'•    $25,000,000 


Continental  Currency,  Emissions  and  Depreciation 

were  twenty  times  the  prices  prevailing  in  1774.  Even  so 
it  was  impossible  to  enforce  the  legal  tariff.  Farmers 
would  not  bring  their  produce  to  market  nor  would  mer- 
chants import  goods  to  be  sold  for  depredated  pajjcr. 
Finally  men  abandoned  the  use  of  money  altogether  and 
had  resort  to  barter.  When,  in  the  last  years  of  the  war, 
the  specie  brought  in  by  the  English  army  and  the  French 
fleet  came  into  general  circulation,  the  Continental  cur- 
rency disappeared  and  prices  dropped  to  the  former  le\cl, 
in  accordance  with  an  economic  law  stronger  than  any 
statutory  enactment. 

The  depreciation  of  the  currency  had  a  demorali;:ing 
effect  on  business  relations.  Debtors  were  enabled  to 
meet  their  obligations  in  legal  tender  worth  but  a  fraction 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         113 

of  the  value  received.    Trustees  defrauded  their  charges 
by  paying  over  their  remittances  in  paper.     Speculators 
trafficked  in  money  of  varying  values,  clearing  profits 
off  the  fluctuations  from  time  to  time  and  from  place  to 
place,  and  thus  made  fortunes  out  of  the  national  disgrace 
The  extraordinary  advance  in  prices  was  regarded  as  suffi- 
cient justification  for  the  intimidation  of  merchants  and 
the  forcible  seizure  of  goods.     "Speculation,  Peculation 
Engrossing,  forestalling,"  wrote  Washington,  "  afford  toci 
many  melancholy  proofs  of  the  decay  of  public  virtue 
Nothing,  I  am  convinced,  but  the  depreciation  of  "our 
currency  .  .  .  aided    by    stock-jobbing    and    party    dis- 
sensions, has  fed  the  hopes  of  the  enemy." 

Commercial    Gains  and  Losses.  —  With  the  achieve- 
ment of  independence,  American  trade  was  set  free  from 
the    restraints    imposed    by    England's    colonial    policy 
immense  benefits  were  anticipated  from  this  emancipation" 

Our  commerce,"  wrote  John  Jay,  "  was  then  confined  to 
breat  Britain.  We  were  obliged  to  carry  our  commodities 
to  her  market  and,  consequently,  sell  them  at  her  price- 
we  were  compelled  to  purchase  foreign  commodities  at 
ner  stores  and  on  her  terms  and  -.vere  forbidden  to  establish 
any  manufactures  incompatible  wiLb  her  view  of  gain. 
In  future  the  whole  worid  will  be  open  to  i-s,  and  we  shall 
be  at  hberty  to  purchase  from  those  who  will  :ell  on  the 

nrtes  """Tr"^  \  ''"  '"  '^°'"  ^'^°  ^'"^  g^^^  "«  ^^  best 
prices.       These   hopes    were   not   immediately    realized. 

i  he  nomntercourse  policy  had  involved  merchants  and 
nrohihV  *"'    f.  ^"^"'^^^    embarrassment.     Parliament's 

e  for.  H  K        *^!,^"t^^h  dominions,  had  been  rigorously 
enforced  by  an  effective  navy,  and  commercial  ventures 

maroue  Ij  .^^"f  "^'''^""*^  ^"^"^  «"t  letters  of 

marque  and  repnsal  and  armed  their  vessels      Three  or 
four  hundred  privateer-,  rendered  ^ali.nt         •       I       ^ 
out  .he  war,  defending  o.:'Zl^l:i^:S:^^:S^l 
men  and  men^f.„a,  fl^„g  ,^  „„;„„  ^^^  oTlT^^^^. 


Writings 
of  George 
Washington, 
VII,  291. 

McLaughlin, 
Ch.  IX. 


Writings 
of  George 
Washington, 
VII,  j88. 


Public 
Papers  of 
John  Jay, 
I.  230. 


McLaughlin, 
Ch.  V. 


Maclay, 
Pt.  L  Ch. 
IV-XVI. 


114 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


li   I 


Callender, 
196—220. 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  186-192. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  III. 


Sheffield, 
American 
Commerce, 
1-6,  134-218, 


Callender, 
208-220. 


Some  six  hundred  frizes  fell  to  their  share,  and  the  prize 
money  went  far  toward  offsetting  the  losses  of  the  merchant 

The  major  part  of  our  transatlantic  trade  had  been  with 
Great  Britain  and  her  dependencies.    Independence  placed 
us  outside  of  the  Navigation  Act  and  deprived  us  of  the 
commercial  advantages  hitherto  accorded  American  vessels 
in  British  ports,  and  this  commerce  received  a  serious 
check     The  younger  Pitt,  the  constant  friend  of  America, 
proposed  (1783)  that  the  commercial  relations  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  be  established  on  the 
principle  of  reciprocal  benefit.    American  ships  were    to 
be  admitted  on  the  same  terms  as  those  of  any  independent 
nation,  and  the  goods  brought  in  should  be  subject  only 
to  such  duties  as  were  imposed  on  goods  from  the  British 
colonies.    This  wise  and  liberal  policy  was  set  aside  be- 
cause protested  bv  tue  English  shipping  interest.     It  was 
urged   that  American  vessels,  built   more  cheaply  and 
manned  more  easilv  than  were  their  British  competitors, 
would  soon  secure  the  whole  Atlantic  trade,  and  that  the 
United  States  was  likely  to  become  a  more  dangerous 
rival  than  Holland  had  been.     British  subjects  were  for- 
bidden to  purckuse  American-built  ships.     Not  only  were 
American  ves«'.»  classed  as  foreign  under  the  Navigation 
Act    but  the  -.-cesed  terrtory  was  treated  as  thirteen 
distinct  states,  a^  m  ^mencan  vessel  was  excluded  unless 
her  cargo  contuse  c    ±e   products  of  the  particular  stale 
where  her  owibt^  -camec.     In  1783  an  Order  in  Counc^ 
denied  \mts3Em  vesiies  access  to  the  ports  of  the  British 
West  T«tfe^  aa^er  «?r  ^  editions,  and  forbade  the  im- 
pcTxaOan   fl  nm.  rat   ^mi  pork  from  the  United  States 
even  v«aen  zsrrmx  m  Zngssh  ^ps.     More  than  one  third 
the  vesseis  ^ans  -ta^^  Boston  and  New  York  m  the 
de.:adr  befojr  de-  Revc^tion  had  sailed  for  these  ports, 
anai  i^er  tw  nrer  rc^iEiitions  American  merchants  for- 

,_ . ,      .^  i^  -=r-J-  -  -  —«'-  'v^  ■>  -^'f^s:       To  " He  planters 

(,i  laimica  .md  -^  Bammas  this  arbitrary  prohibition 
W2^'  mmnsz  tes-  -inm  abaster.  Fifteen  thousand  slaves 
3S!d  01  4fia--aUfiiL  M  titt  next  four  years. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         115 


Other  business  interests  experienced  the  ill  effects  of 
separation.  Exports,  such  as  indigo,  naval  stores,  and 
hemp,  dwindled  because  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  bounties 
formerly  paid  by  the  British  government.  In  place  of 
this  stimulus,  duties  levied  in  the  English  ports  actually 
checked  the  exportation  of  these  articles.  The  ship- 
builders, too,  lost  their  best  market,  and  the  whalers  were 
no  longer  on  an  equal  footing  with  their  British  competitors. 
Moreover,  the  prohibitory  duties  of  the  Corn  Law  were 
imposed  upon  our  agricultural  products.  Our  trade  with 
the  French  and  Spanish  West  Indies,  with  Europe  and 
the  Orient,  free  so  far  as  ships  were  concerned,  was  ham- 
pered by  prohibitions  and  restrictions  on  the  goods  that 
might  be  imported. 

The  Congress  of  the  Confederation  attempted  to  nego-  Pitkin, 
tiate  a  commercial  treaty  with  Great  Britain  that  should  S"  pL,°YV;Ti' 
secure  more  advantageous  terms,  but  these  overtures  were 
rejected.     English  merchants  were  well  content  with  the 
trade  regulations  enacted  by  their  own  government,  and 
English  statesmen  openly  denied  the  ability  of  Congress 
to  enforce  any  commercial  agreement  upon  thirteen  un- 
ruly states.    In  other  directions  Congress  was  no  more  Caiiender, 
successful  in  protecting  the  commercial  interests  of  Ameri-   221-^31- 
can  citizens.     Spain  claimed  proprietorship  in  both  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  and,  by  consequence,  the  monopoly 
of  trade  along  that  important  waterway.    The  attempt 
to  negotiate  a  treaty  giving  American  vessels  equal  rights 
failed.    The  settlers  west  of  the  Alleghanies  bitterly  pro- 
tested the  surrender  of  their  only  means  of  reaching  a 
market,  and  plotted  secession.    Negotiations  with  other 
European  courts  came  to  little  result.     Said  Washington, 
"  We  are  one  nation  to-day,  thirteen  to-morrow,  who  will 
treat  with  us  on  these  terms?  " 

Conflicting  commercial  legislation  was  the  inevitable  HiU, 
result  of  the  diverse  interests  of  the  states.     Massachusetts  Y'^'^^  I*t  *^^ff 
and  New  Jersey  originally  declared  for  free  trade  in  the  PoUcy     *" 
interests  of  commerce.     Virginia  continued  to  levy  an  ex-  490-327- 
port  duty  on  tobacco  and  an  unport  duty  on  liquors  as  the 


■    if 

^1 


t-. ' 


11 6      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


i  1 
III 


1 1  • 


Pitkin, 
Stat.  View 
of  U.S., 
Ch.  II. 


Stanwood, 
American 
Tariff  Con- 
troversies, 
I,  Ch.  U. 


easiest  means  of  securing  a  revenue.  Pennsylvania,  Rhode 
Island,  and  New  York,  and  eventually  Massachusetts, 
laid  heavy  taxes  on  foreign  luxuries,  such  as  wines,  tea, 
coffee,  sugar,  and  coaches,  in  the  interest  of  revenue,  and 
imposed  duties  on  certain  manufactures  in  order  to  protect 
domestic  industries  against  English  competition.  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  discriminated  against  foreign 
(especially  British)  traders  by  doubling  the  duties  on  goods 
imported  in  British  vessels.  Even  interstate  commerce, 
e.g.  in  tobacco,  was  subjected  to  imposts.  The  Atlantic 
coast  was  thui  divided  into  thirteen  distinct  customs  dis- 
tricts, each  pursuing  an  independent  policy,  and  the  state 
authorities  not  infrequently  came  into  conflict  as  to  the 
limits  of  their  respective  jurisdictions.  Virginia  and 
Maryland  were  at  loggerheads  over  the  navigation  of  the 
Potomac,  while  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  disputed 
control  of  the  Delaware  River.  Soon  it  became  evident 
that  Congress  could  not  bring  Spain  and  Great  Britain 
to  terms  nor  negotiate  other  commercial  treaties  without 
power  to  make  and  enforce  uniform  regulations. 

Development  of  Manufactures.  —  Independence  put  an 
end  to  the  restrictions  imposed  by  Parliament  on  American 
manufactures.  Woolen  cloth  and  beaver  hats  could  now 
be  sent  to  any  market  at  home  or  abroad,  and  slitting  mills, 
foundries,  and  steel  furnaces  might  be  erected  without  let 
or  hindrance.  The  nonimportation  resolutions  and  the 
embargo  combined  to  stop  the  inflow  of  foreign  goods, 
and  the  special  demands  created  by  the  war  gave  extraor- 
dinary stimulus  to  certain  industries.  Cannon,  muskets, 
anchors,  etc.,  no  longer  to  be  had  from  England,  were 
wrought  in  the  foundries  of  East  Bridgewater,  Canton, 
Springfield,  and  Easton,  Massachusetts.  Considerable 
steel  was  made  into  muskets  at  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 
and  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The  Sterling  works  cast 
tho  guns  for  the  battleship  Constitition  and  the  links  of 
the  iron  chain  that  was  stretched  across  the  Hudson  at 
West  Point  as  a  barrier  astainst  the  British  fleet.  At  the 
Principio  works  in  Maryland  the  English  owners  having 


de 

ts, 

nd 
;ct 
ew 

gn 
ds 
ce, 
tic 
is- 
ite 
he 
nd 
he 
ed 
nt 
lin 
ut 


an 
an 

)W 

Is, 
let 
he 


ts, 
;re 
m, 
)le 
ia, 
ist 
of 
at 


ng 


Ei    <i 


Irl.  *. 
jU,  !' 

hi : 


p 

I 


!  ■, 


o 

> 

u 

H 

i4 


a 
w 


o 

?, 

SI 
t/: 


U.  S.  Censu% 
I  goo, 
IX,  532. 

Dwight, 
III,  79-81. 


Bishop, 
I.  383-4J3. 

Bagnall, 

I,  ch.  m. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         117 

lost  control,  cannon  balls  were  cast  for  the  use  of  the 
Continental  army.  The  fact  that  the  Washington  family 
held  one  twelfth  interest  in  the  plant  may  have  determined 
this  patriotic  service. 

Salt  was  another  necessity  that  had  now  to  be  produced 
at  home,  the  supply  from  Portugal  and  the  West  Indies 
bemg  cut  off  by  the  war.  The  salt  works  along  the  New 
England  coast  immediately  d  oubled  their  capacity.  Tanks 
for  boiling  the  brine  were  set  up  at  New  Bedford  and  on 
the  "  back  side  "  of  Cape  Cod.  The  salt  wells  of  Onondaga 
County,  New  York,  long  known  to  explorers  and  pioneers, 
began  to  produce  for  the  market  in  1788. 

The  textile  industries  experienced  no  slight  advantage 
from   the  decade  during  which  domestic  manufactures 
had  the  monopoly  of  the  American  market.     Clothing 
for  the  army  as  well  as  for  ordinary  wear  was  made  up  at 
home,  and  many  a  militiaman  went  to  the  war  clad  in  a 
suit  made  of  wool  shorn  from  his  own  sheep,  spun  and  woven 
and  fashioned  by  the  women  of  his  household.    Production 
was  stimulated  by  the  war  demand,  and  every  community 
strove  to  produce  greater  skill,  better  implements,  and  more 
raw  material.    Governor  Colden  of  New  York  had  re- 
ported to  the  Board  of  Trade  in  1765  that  "  all  the  wool 
m  America  is  not  sufficient  to  make  stockings  for  the  in- 
habitants," but  systematic  effort  increased  the  supply  to  Weeden, 
the  point  of  meeting  immediate  need  in  the  decade  follow-  "-  732-733. 
ing.    The  New  York  society  for  the  "  Promotion  of  Arts, 
Agriculture,  and  Economy"  offered   premiums  for  linen 
yarn,  linen  cloth,  woven  stockings,  etc.    The  sum  of  £10 
was  proposed  for  the  first  three  stocking  frames  of  iron 
that  should  be  set  up  in  the  colony,  a  medal  for  the  first 
xiax  mill  run  by  water  power,  and  £30  for  the  first  bleach- 
ing field.    At  the  Manufactory  House  on  Tremont  Street, 
Boston,  a  spinning  school  was  opei    '  where  expert  mis- 
tresses   taught    this    useful    and    p     ular    art.    William 
Molmeux,  the  director,  boasted  that  they  had  "  learned 
at  least  three  hundred  children  and  women  to  spin  in  the 
most  compleat  {sic)  manner."    A  dozen  looms  were  kept 


1 18      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


iii 


PhilUps, 
II.  314-330. 


busy  weaving  woolens,  linen,  duck,  and  sailcloth,  and  a 
bleaching  yard,  fulling  mill,  and  dye  works  were  operated 
on  the  same  premises ;  but  the  occupation  of  Boston  by 
British  troops  and  the  subsequent  siege  ruined  this  enter- 
prise. The  American  Manufactory,  set  up  on  the  comer 
of  Ninth  and  Market  Streets,  Philadelphia,  employed  some 
five  hundred  people  in  making  linen  and  woolen  doth. 
The  yam  was  supplied  by  women  who  spun  in  their  own 
homes  the  flax  and  wool  furnished  them  by  the  company. 
The  business  was  suspended  with  the  British  occupation ; 
but  another  Philadelphia  factory,  established  by  Samuel 
Wetherill,  successfully  filled  a  large  contract  for  army 
clothing,  woven  and  made  up  in  the  same  shop.  Reading 
and  Lancaster  were  also  imp>ortant  manufacturing  centers. 
In  New  Jersey  there  were  forty-one  fulUng  mills  for  fin- 
ishing the  cloth  woven  in  the  farmhouses,  but  no  factories. 
The  luicn  and  woolen  factory  of  Baltimore,  opened  in 
1776,  was  granted  a  subsidy  by  the  state  legislature,  and 
several  private  enterprises  were  soon  established.  Every- 
where north  of  the  Chesapeake  the  output  of  linen  and 
woolen  cloth  was  sufficient  for  domestic  needs.  Farther 
south  the  native  cotton  was  the  only  available  fiber,  and 
spinning  wheels  and  looms  were  scarce.  Nevertheless, 
the  patriotic  managed  to  clothe  themselves  and  their  slaves 
with  homespun,  and  a  considerable  industry  was  developed. 
In  1786  Jefferson  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  The  four  southem- 
most  states  make  a  great  deal  of  cotton.  Their  poor  are 
almost  entirely  clothed  with  it  in  Winter  and  Summer  .  .  . 
the  dress  of  the  women  is  almost  entirely  of  cotton  manu- 
factured by  themselves,  except  the  richer  class,  and  even 
many  of  these  wear  a  good  deal  of  home-spun  cotton.  It 
is  as  well  manufactured  as  the  calicoes  of  Europe." 

The  Farmer's  Opportunity.  —  Certain  agricultural  in- 
terests suffered  from  the  withdrawal  of  the  British  bounties. 
The  turpentine  industry  felt  the  effect  of  falling  prices,  and 
the  indigo  planters  were  ruined.  Lumbermen  discovered 
that  full  license  to  fell  the  finest  trees  hardly  compensated 
for  the  failure  of  the  British  bounties.    These  losses  were 


k 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Resolution         1 19 

eventuaUy  made  good  by  the  opening  of  new  markets  in 
Europe  and  by  the  increase  in  the  domestic  demand  con- 
sequent on  the  rapid  growth  of  populaUon.    For  the  rice 
and  tobacco  planters,  the  removal  of  aU  restraint  on  the 
destination  of  their  exports  was  an  unqualified  advantage. 
Of  even  greater  importance  to  the  agricultural  future 
of  the  country  was  the  aboUtion  by  the  state  legislatures 
of  every  vestige  of  feudal  land  tenure.    The  agitaUon  was 
begun  by  Thomas  Jefferson  in  Virginia  and  was  taken  up 
by  the  democratic  leaders  of  the  other  Southern  states 
Primogeniture  no  longer  determined  the  line  of  inheritance 
and  perpetuated  great  estates,  while  entail  and  all  other 
restramts  on  the  transfer  of  landed  property  ceased.    The 
payment  of  quitrents  was  no  longer  required,  and  the  fee 
simple  titles  became  absolute  and  unconditioned.    The 
rights  of  the  proprietors  to  the  unsettled  districts  of  Penn- 
sylvania  and   Maryland   terminated,  and  these  estates 
together  with  the  crown  lands,  lapsed  to  the  state.    New 
York  and  Massachusetts  sold  their  western  lands  in  large 
tracts  to  speculators  who  resold  at  an  advanced  price  to 
actual  farmers.    So  the  fertile  lowlands  that  formed  the 
ancient  bed  of  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie  were  settled 
and  prosperous  Uttle  communities  developed. 

The  AntisUvery  Movement.  —  The  importation  of 
African  slaves  had  been  regarded  as  a  temporary  necessity 
that  would  cease  when  immigraUon  and  the  natural  growth 
of  populaUon  should  render  the  supply  of  white  labor 
suffiaent.  Even  in  the  Southern  colonies,  where  slave 
labor  was  evidently  profitable,  it  was  keenly  felt  that  the 
planter's  money  gain  was  more  than  offset  by  the  social  and 
political  evils  that  might  accrue  to  the  community.  South 
tarohna,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  had  each  attempted 
to  restnct  the  importation  of  slaves  by  laying  customs 
duti^,  sometimes  so  high  as  to  be  prohibitory.    Any  serious 

?fK  T,°"  .*!!*'  *'*^'*  *^^^®  ^*^'  however,  quite  inconsistent 
^itn  BnUsh  policy,  and  adverse  legislation  was  promptly 
vetueu  The  Royal  African  Company  was  importing 
annually  (1713-1733)  from  five  to  ten  thousand  slaves 


Sato, 

Land  Ques- 
tion in  U.S., 
273-277. 

Weld, 
1 72-1 73- 


Randall, 
Life  of 
Jefiferson, 
I,  194-2J9, 
397-400. 

ShejAerd, 
Proprietaiy 
Government 
in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 
1-03- 
Weld, 

w.  325-338. 

Dubois, 
Suppression 
of  the  Slave 
Trade, 
Ch.  II-V. 

American 
Husbandry, 
I,  2a8-2ag, 
246,  »64, 

415-424. 
427-428; 
n,  25,  29, 
345.  395- 


— , i 


1 20     Industrial  History  of  tite  United  States 


\.    i: 


McCrady, 
II.  Ch. 
XIII,  XX. 

Phillips, 
II,  29-30. 


Tucker, 
Dissertation 
on  Slavery, 
45- 


to  the  American  colonies,  and  its  stockholders  had  great 
social  and  political  influence.  After  the  monopoly  was 
withdrawn,  private  merchants  urged  the  continuance  of 
this  highly  profitable  trade.  In  1 7 1 7  Maryland  laid  a  duty 
on  imp>orted  slaves.  Virginia  had  imposed  a  duty  of  £5 
in  1 7 10,  but  the  bill  was  rejected  by  Governor  Spotswood 
because  of  the  check  on  importation.  Similar  bills  passed 
the  House  of  Burgesses  in  1723,  1766,  and  1769,  only  to 
be  disposed  of  by  veto.  South  Carolina  laid  import  duties 
ranging  from  £10  to  £100  and  proposed  to  devote  the 
revenue  collected  to  defraying  the  expense  of  bringing 
in  white  servants.  In  1760  the  legislature  passed  a  law 
forbidding  the  importation  of  slaves  into  this  colony; 
but  the  act  was  disallowed  by  the  Privy  Council,  and  the 
governor  who  had  signed  it  was  reprimanded.  In  1772 
the  Virginia  Assembly  addressed  a  protest  to  the  king. 
"  The  importation  of  slaves  into  the  colonies  from  the  coast 
of  Africa  hath  long  been  considered  as  a  trade  of  great  in- 
humanity, and  under  its  present  encouragement,  we  have 
too  much  reason  to  fear  will  endanger  the  very  existence 
of  your  majesty's  American  dominions.  .  .  .  Deeply 
impressed  with  these  sentiments,  we  most  humbly  beseech 
your  majesty  to  remove  all  those  restraints  on  your  maj- 
esty's governors  of  this  colony,  which  inhibit  their  assent- 
ing to  such  laws  as  might  check  so  very  pernicious  a 
commerce." 

In  the  Northern  colonies  the  economic  as  well  as  social 
and  political  advantage  was  with  free  white  labor,  and 
but  few  slaves  were  held.  The  trade  in  slaves  was,  how- 
ever, a  highly  profitable  one.  Duties  were  levied  at  the 
ports  both  for  revenue  and  to  discourage  importation,  but 
the  trade  was  left  untrammeled  by  the  provision  that  the 
duty  should  be  remitted  in  full  when  the  slave  was  re- 
exported. Boston  and  Newport  and  other  New  England 
ports  became  open  slave  marts  where  slaves  brought  from 
the  Gold  Coast  were  held  until  a  suitable  market  should 
be  found. 

The  struggle  for  independence  wakened  a  keener  ap- 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


121 


tested  by  the  Soaety  of  Friends  on  religious  grounds    Anti-siavery 
and  the  protection  given  to  the  slave  tride  bfGreat  "^'"°^ 

Xy  ^^:^"^  T"  "^^^'.P'^  °^  ^^^  selfish'coloSa 
A^l  y^'^'""^'  ^n  her  nonimportation  resolutions  of 
1769,  had  recommended  that  merchants  import  nostv^ 
and  purchase  none  imported  until  the  Townshend  aIS 
should  be  repealed  and  the  nonimportation  movement  o1 
1774  called  out  declarations  from  both  Virginia  and  North 
Carohna  agamst  the  further  importation  of  slav^  Mai 
t^tT"'  (\77x  .and  1774)  and  Delaware  (  y'^undS^ 
took  to  prohibit  m^portation.  but  their  bills  weJ^  vetoed 
L    IJy^^   governors.    The    Rhode   Island    Friends 

negr^  butT"""-'  '^^  '°^''^^"«  ^^^  i-portatTon  o 
inf^r^h..     1     P"''T!^^'e  ^la"se  aUowed  vessels  belong- 

TtLe  wLt  ?"!?  '°  ^"^^  "^  ^'^"^^  ^^^^  ^°"'d  not  be  sofd 
m  the  West  Indies,  provided  the  master  gave  bond  to 
deport  every  such  slave  within  the  year.  Tonnecric^? 
aoneacbeved  absolute  prohibition  o'f  the  slave  tSe 
(1774)  before  the  war.    On  October  ic    1774    the  Con 

after  t^  r.  7  '""^'Ji  "^^  P"^"^^^  ^"V  ^^^^e  imported 
tZ^LT^^^  of  December  next;  after  which  time 
^ve  will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave  trade,  and  will  neither 

conc?,!^^  •  T™°i.''''  °'"  "'^""factures  to  those  who  are 
Httle  ?o^^"  ;  ^'  '.'^^'^^^^^  declaration  called  out 
little  comment  except  in  Georgia.     There  the  planters 

aleln.     °"J?.°PP°''''^"'  '^"d   ^*>^  ratification  of  the 

?he  I.T    7^.^"'^^"^  ""'"  ^^«  threat  of  a  boycott  forcS 

he  laggard  colony  to  fall  into  line.    On  April  ,    i7,T 

th  rCcT""  '"If"  T  '''''  "  ^«  ™P-'«d  -'o  any  of'the 
tid    of  the      ?    '  ^"' t^^  P'-«hibition  marks  the  high 
"ae  of  the  anti-slavery  movement.. 

the  kL':  :?t:lt'Britat'''  ^."'!3'"\°^  Independence  WHUn^of 
wir  -.J-    1  u  "t^"  '^  charged  with  waging  "  cruel  hBtnon. 

St  0  Hf?"?1"  "^^"^^  '^-'f'  -'°'ating  its  Lft  sacr^  ^'  '»• 
nghts  of  hfe  and  hberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people 


Si 

It'  >' 

i 


Writings  of 
JefiFerson, 
I.  34- 


122      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

who  never  offended  him,  captivating  &  carrying  them 
into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable 
death  in  their  transportation  thither.  .  .  .  Determined 
to  keep  open  a  market  where  MEN  should  be  bought  h 
sold,  he  has  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing  every 
legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  to  restrain  this  execrable 
commerce."  Spite  of  the  great  influence  of  Jefferson 
and  the  efforts  of  the  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  delegates, 
this  denunciation  of  the  slave  trade  was  struck  out  of  the 
final  form,  "  in  complaisance  to  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  who  had  never  attempted  to  restrain  the  impor- 
tation of  slaves,  and  who,  on  the  contrary,  still  wished  to 
continue  it.  Our  northern  brethren  also,  I  believe, 
felt  a  little  tender  under  those  censures ;  for  though  their 
people  had  very  few  slaves  themselves,  yet  they  had  been 
pretty  considerable  carriers  of  them  to  others." 

The  basis  for  this  accusation  of  complicity  was  soon 
removed.  In  the  years  immediately  following  on  the 
adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  Northern  states 
without  exception  barred  the  slave  traders  from  their 
f>orts.  Massachusetts,  in  1780,  abolished  slavery  within 
her  jurisdiction.  Before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, gradual  emancipation  had  been  ordained  by  law  in 
all  the  New  England  states,  as  well  as  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.  The  emancipation  movement  found  ex- 
pression in  the  generous  offer  made  by  most  of  the  Northern 
states  of  full  and  complete  freedom  to  any  negro  or  in- 
dentured servant  who  would  enlist  for  service  in  the  Con- 
tinental army,  while  Congress  undertook,  at  Washington's 
urgent  request,  to  recoup  the  masters  of  enlisted  servants 
by  grants  from  the  public  domain.  One  of  the  important 
effects  of  the  Revolutionary  War  was  to  convert  a  con- 
siderable number  of  emancipated  slaves  and  indentured 
servants  into  free  laborers  and  farmers. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


123 


The  Conquest  of  the  Ohio  Valley 

The  struggle  for  independence  had  two  distinct  phases 
The  first  and  best  known,  the  revolt  against  British  rule 
was  the  work  of  the  Atlantic  coast  colonies;   the  second 
and  hardly  yet  appreciated,  the  winning  of  the  Western 
temtory,  was  the  achievement  of  the  pioneers  who  pushed 
across  the  mountains  and  took  possession  of  the  country 
drained  by  the  streams  that  empty  into  the  Mississippi 
North  of  the  Ohio  River  and  south  of  the  Tennessee,  two 
great  Indian  confederacies  held  sway,  the  Iroquois  and  the 
Cherokee.    Between  these  hostile  "  naUons  "  lay  a  de- 
batable country  which  no  Indian  tribe  dared  claim     A 
rich,  heavily  forested  region,  teeming  with  game,  it  was 
frequenUy  raided  by  hunting  parties  seeking  deer,  elk, 
or  buffalo,  or  by  war  bands  in  pursuit  of  human  prey 
but  the  abongines  planted  nothing  more  substantial  than 
summer  camps  within  the  "  dark  and   bloody  ground  " 
This  unoccupied  territory  was  the  path  of  least  resistance 
for  the  impending  westward  movement  of  white  civiliza- 
tion.   It  was  claimed  by  Virginia  in  virtue  of  the  "  sea 
to  sea  "  grant  made  to  the  London  Company  by  James  I, 
but  the  paper  title  would  have  counted  for  little  had  not 
the  land  been  peopled  by  Virginians.    The  fact  that  the 
most  practicable  mountain  passes  opened  from  Virginia 
gave  her  citizens  first  entry  into  the  new  territory,  and  thus 
she  became  the  mother  of  the  first  commonwealths  beyond 
the  mountains.     From   the   Great   Valley  four  natural 
highways  led  across  the  Alleghanies:   up  the  Potomac  to 
l-ort  Cumberiand,  over  the  pass  and  down  the  Yough- 
logheny  to  the  Monongahela,  and  so  down  to  Fort  Pitt  and 

p  ,,^*"i,^"^  ^^^'^^^  ^y  '■*^^'  ^^^  ^°^^'  o""  schooner  to  the 
i^alls.    This  last  portion  of  the  route  was  speedy  but  haz- 
ardous, for  the  river  was  treacherous  except  at  high  water 
and  hosUle  Indians  lurked  in  the  forests  of  the  northern 
.nore.    The  Greenbriar  and  Kanawha  cut  a  second  pass 

r.?'"  ^.?\  ^^*  "^^"^  ^i"R  impracticable,  a  road  was 
later  built  into  the  heart  of  Kentucky.     But  most  of  the 


Roosevelt 
I.  Ch.  V. 
VI,  VII. 

Winscr, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  IV.  VI. 

Imlay, 
Description 
of  Western 
Territory. 


Semple, 
Ch.  IV. 


Hulbert. 

Braddock's 

Road, 

Ch.  VI,  VIII 

James  Flint, 
Letters  from 
America, 
97.  los, 
109-110. 


I 


'  -i 


:l 


ft 


Hulbert, 
Boone's 
Wilderness 
Road. 


Roosevelt, 
I,  Ch.  X, 
XII ;  II.  Ch. 
VIU,  XI. 


Weld. 

I,   2t4-2l6, 


124      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

men  who  crossed  the  mountains  in  the  Revolutionary 
period  chose  the  path  over  Cumberland  Gap.  This  route 
was  comparatively  free  from  Indians  and  practicable  at  all 
seasons.  The  Tennessee  River,  navii,^ble  for  boats  of 
light  draft,  from  its  source  in  Holston  Valley  till  it  empties 
into  the  Ohio,  made  another  highroad  into  the  wilderness ; 
but  this  river  was  far  more  difl&cult  than  the  Ohio,  and  its 
banks  were  infested  by  Indian  freebooters,  the  Chicka- 
maugas.  Nevertheless  this  was  the  usual  route  into  the 
southwest  territory. 

The  Backwoods  Settlements.  —  Adventurous  hunters, 
French  and  Spanish  Creoles,  as  well  as  Americans,  had 
penetrated  the  wilderness  beyond  the  mountains  in  pur- 
suit   of    game    and    pelts.    Indefatigable    traders    from 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  floated  their  merchandise 
down  the  rivers  and  followed  the  buffalo  trails  far  into  the 
interior,  carrying  on  stout  pack  horses  the  rum,  firearms, 
and  trinkets  that  were  to  be  exchanged  at  fabulous  profit 
for  skins  and  furs.    Surveyors,  sent  out  by  state  authorities 
or  by  land  speculators,  ran  their  boundary  lines  through 
the  primeval  forest  with  infinite  toil  and  no  little  danger, 
but  since  each  party  worked  quite  independently,  their 
surveys  resulted  in  an  inextricable  tangle  of  conflicting 
claims.    None  of  these,  however,  were  settlers ;  they  but 
prepared  the  way  for  the  real  westward  movement.    The 
coming  of  the  pioneer  farmers,  the  men  who  proposed 
taking  up  land  and  building  homes,  coincided  with  the 
epoch  of  the  Revolution.     By  1770  tidewater  Virginia 
was  full  to  overflowing,  and  the  "  back  country  "  of  the 
Blue   Ridge   and   the   Shenandoah   was  fully  occupied. 
Even  the  mountain  valleys  ol  the  Yadkin,  the  Watauga, 
the  French  Broad,  and  the  Holston,  were  claimed  by 
colonies  of  sturdy  pioneers.     Before  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  the  oncoming  tide  of  home  seekers  had 
reached  the  crest  of  the  AUeghanies. 

The  invading  wave  gathered  in  its  tide  men  of  diverse 
races  and  conditions.  Scotch-Irish  and  Germans  moved 
south  along  the  Great  Valley  from  Pennsylvania  or  up  the 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


125 


Magomg  rivers  from  Charleston.     Dutch  from  the  Hudson 
Swedes  from  the  Delaware,  Huguenots  from  the  port 
lirjK      fi  "^E^u^"   immigration."    Every  man   who 
felt  the  need  of  elbowroom  and  had  pluck  and  muscle  for 
the  vici^itudes  of  the  frontier,  ventured  his  fate  in  Ken- 
ta-kt.     Younger  sons  of   planters  seeking  land,  redemp- 
tioners  who  had  served  their  terms  and    otheJs  escaped 
from  service,  pohtical  offenders  and  ne'er-do-weels,  out- 
laws of  every  type,  sought  a  chance  to  better  their  fortunes 
m  the  new  world  beyond  the  mountains.    The  adventure 
was  as  great  as  that  made  by  the  first  settlers  at  Plymouth 
and  Jamestown.    The  journey  across  the  Appalachians 
was  qmte  as  serious  an  obstacle  as  the  transatlandc  voyage 
the  costs  were  no  less,  and  the  dangers  far  greater.    The 
men  and  women  who  had  the  hardihood  to  make  this  trip 
by  foot  or  on  pack  horse,  over  the  Indian-haunted  trails,' 
were  steeled  for  the  multiform  adversities  of  the  backwoods! 
^  u     .P^""^"^''^  settlement  in  Kentucky  was  fi- 
nanced  by  the  Transylvania  Company,  a  business  associa- 
tion  orgamzed  by  Richard  Henderson,  a  surveyor  from 
North  Carolma,  a  "  man  of  no  inconsiderable    abihties 
and  more  enterprise."    He  secured  title  to  the  reirion  tk    v 
ttr  PK^r^'^^'^^^^-^-^-d  rJveXtr^y  ^^'" 
with  the  Cherokees  and  immediately  sent  a  party  of  thirty  ^^r^ 
men  under  gmdance  of  Daniel  Boone,  the  famous  hunter 
and  surveyor    to  clear  a  trail  from  the  Holston  to  the 
^iTfi  ""f  '°  ^"^^^    '^'""^  ^  P^^^^ded  fort.    On  the 
l^tH  ?i    ly^  'J^l'  H^"d^'-«°'^  arrived  in  Boonesborough 
with  tiie  bulk  of  the  colonists.    There  he  opened  a  land 
office  and  proceeded  to  grant  farms  in  tracts  of  four  hun- 
dred acres  and  upwards.    Henderson  anticipated  a  revenue 
from  quitrents  due  on  the  land  and  from  the  trade  that 
now/''^^uP  ^"^  ^^'  settlements,  but   he  was   disap- 
K  V    •  ^^  '""^>'  P^°"^^  '■ef^sed  to  pay  rent,  and 
Tranlv'k  "'^  authorities  protested  his  Indian  title,  si  the 
made  tn  T  ^^^^^f"^  '^"''  *°  ^""^^   ^"^  the  grants 
simple  by  the  legislature  of  Virginia. 


i    V, 


Inlay, 
149- 


Roosevelt, 

I,  Ch.  XI ; 

II,  Ch.  I-V ; 

III,  Ch.  II, 
VII ;  IV, 
Ch.  I,  II. 

Winsor, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  VIII, 
XIII. 


126      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Three  other  settlements  were  founded  in  Kentucky  in 
1775,  Harrodstown,  Boiling  Spring,  and  St.  Asaphs  or 
Logan's  Station.  In  1779  John  Robertson,  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  Watauga  colony  led  a  migration  along  the 
Cumberiand  River  to  the  Bluffs  and  there  founded  Nash- 
boro.  Every  such  settlement  centered  in  a  palisaded 
village  where  the  families  were  housed  during  the  Indian 
raids.  Each  settler  felled  the  trees,  planted  corn,  and  bu^'t 
a  log  hut  in  the  land  assigned  him ;  but  the  cabins  in  the 
isolated  clearings  could  not  be  defended  against  serious 
assault. 

Indian  Wars.  —  Ever  since  the  acquisition  of  this 
territory  in  1763,  it  had  been  the  policy  of  the  British 
government  to  withhold  the  lands  from  settlement  in  the 
interest  of  the  fur  trade.  Now  that  the  settlers  were  also 
rebels,  a  systematic  effort  was  made  to  drive  them  back 
to  the  seaboard.  Cameron,  the  representation  of  King 
George  on  the  Carolina  frontier,  incited  the  Cherokees 
to  take  the  warpath  against  the  invaders,  and  throughout 
1776  the  border  settlements  were  ravaged  by  fire  and 
tomahawk.  The  Watauga  men,  aided  by  militia  from 
Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  finally 
succeeded  in  forcing  the  tribes  to  make  peace  and  to  yitld 
a  considerable  portion  of  their  lands  to  the  Americans. 
Thenceforth  the  pack  trains  of  the  pioneers  traveled  the 
Wilderness  Road  free  from  the  fear  of  molestation. 

In  Kentucky  the  contest  against  the  Indians  and  their 
British  allies  proved  an  even  more  serious  affair,  for  Hamil- 
ton, the  British  commander  at  Detroit,  supplied  the  Iro- 
quois with  arms  and  bribed  them  to  raid  the  American 
outposts.  No  frontier  settlement,  from  Fort  Pitt  and  Fort 
Henry  on  the  Ohio  to  the  palisaded  villages  of  Kentucky, 
was  exempt  from  their  cruel  assaults.  The  ferocity  of  *he 
savages  was  matched  by  the  fury  of  the  backwoodsmt.i, 
many  of  whom  cherished  an  hereditary  hatred  of  England, 
most  of  whom  had  lost  wife  or  child  or  friend  through  this 
latest  development  of  British  policy.  All  the  toil  and 
suffering  t!       had  gone  to  the  building  of  the  frontier 


I     I 


Iru^ustrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


1^7 


settlements  seemed  Ukely  to  end  in  ruin,  when  Colonel 
George  Rogers  Clark,  the  most  adroit  of  Indian  fighter-^ 
determined  to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country' 
Having  secured   funds   and   ammunition   from   Patrick 
Henry,  then  governor  of  Virginia,  he  issued  a  call  for 
volunteers.    The  mother  state  could  spare  no  men;   but 
the     long  hunters  "  of  the  frontier  found  here  their  op- 
portunity to  pay  off  old  grudges,  and  they  rallied  to  Clark's 
standard  at  Fort  Pitt.    Four  companies  of  picked  men 
with  their  equipment  floated  down  the  Ohio  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Tennessee,  and  there,  disembarking,  they  marched 
overland  to  the  French  settlements  on  the  Kaskaskia  and 
the  Wabash.    Taken  by  surprise,  the  habitants  surrendered 
without  a  blow;   they  were  quite  as  well  content  to  be 
congress  men  "  as  king's  men,  since  both  were  alien 
powers.    The  Indian  chiefs,  gathered  at  Cahokia,  were 
overawed  by  the  prowess  of  the   "long  knives,"  and 
Clark  s  diplomacy  soon  persuaded  them  to  make  peace 
with  the  Americans.    Hamilton,  then  in  winter  quarters 
at  Vincennes,  preparing  an  attack  on  Fort  Pitt,  was  caught 
off  his  guard  and  forced  to  yield  his  little  garrison  (1778). 
imis  Congress  became  the  dominant  power  both  north 
and  south  of  the  Ohio,  and  thus,  when  five  years  later 
peace  was  made  with  Great  Britain,  all  the  British  territory 
between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Floridas  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States. 

Peace  and  Proiperity.- The  country  once  freed  from  Roosevd, 
aanger  o   Ind-an  outrage,  settlers  crossed  the  mountains  ".  Ch.  vii 

in  shoals.  Twelve  thousand  people  came  out  in  1784  'i;^"^ 
to  Kentucky  alone.  When  the  first  United  States  census  {""ch.  i' 
was  taken,  fifteen  years  after  the  building  of  Boonesborough, 
there  were  more  than  seventy  thousand  svliites  in  Kentucky 
and  thirty-five  thousand  odd  in  Tennessee.  There  were 
probably  ,01700  four  hundred  thousand  settlers  on  the 
nvtrs  that  flow  into  the  Mississippi. 

North  Carolina  opened  a  land  office  in  the  Watauga 
X^a'T  '778  and  offered  farms  on  easy  terms.  Every 
ftead  of  a  family  might  take  up  six  hundred  and  forty 


L 


i 


Michaux, 
225-228. 


Imlay, 
i34-«36. 


Drake. 
Pioneer   Life 
in  Ken- 
tucky, 42. 


128      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

acres  on  his  own  account,  one  hundred  for  his  wife,  and 
one  hundred  for  each  child.  The  price  was  $10  per  hun- 
dred acres;  but  since  this  might  be  paid  in  depreciated 
currency  or  set  off  against  military  service,  the  settlers 
had  no  difficulty  in  securing  full  title.  South  Carolina 
offered  similar  terms  for  her  Cherokee  lands  in  1784.  Vir- 
ginia (1779)  ofTered  the  Kentucky  pioneers  four-hundred- 
acre  tracts  at  the  rate  of  $2.50  per  hundred,  on  condition 
that  a  house  should  be  built  and  corn  planted  within  the 
year.  Every  man  who  could  prove  such  a  "  cabin  right  " 
had  a  preemption  claim  to  one  thousand  acres  more  at 
a  cost  of  $40  per  hundred.  Clark's  men  were  rewarded 
in  bounty  lands  north  of  the  Ohio,  three  hundred  acres 
each,  while  the  arrears  of  pay  due  the  soldiers  of  the  Con- 
tinental army  were  made  good  in  the  same  inexpensive 
fashion. 

A  contemporary  writer  has  left  a  careful  statement  of 
what  such  a  pioneer  might  accomplish.  "  A  log-house  is 
very  soon  erected,  and  in  consequence  of  the  friendly  dis- 
position which  exists  among  those  hospitable  people,  every 
neighbor  flew  to  the  assistance  of  each  other  upon  occasions 
of  emergency.  Sometimes  they  were  built  of  round  logs 
entirely,  covered  with  rived  ash  shingles,  and  the  inter- 
stices stopped  with  clay,  or  lime  and  sand,  to  keep  out  the 
weather.  The  next  object  was  to  open  the  land  for  culti- 
vation. There  is  very  little  under-wood  in  any  part  of 
this  country,  so  that  by  cutting  up  the  cane,  and  girdling 
the  trees,  you  are  sure  of  a  crop  of  corn.  The  fertility 
of  the  soil  amply  repays  the  laborer  for  his  toil;  for  if 
the  large  trees  are  not  very  numerous,  and  a  large  pro- 
portion of  them  the  sugar  maple,  it  is  very  likely  from  this 
imperfect  cultivation  that  the  ground  w'll  yield  from 
fifty  to  sixty  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre.  The  second  crop 
will  be  more  ample ;  and  as  the  shade  is  removed  by  cuttint; 
the  timber  away,  great  p.  rt  of  our  land  will  produce  from 
seventy  to  one  hundred  bushels  of  corn  from  an  acre. 
This  exlraordinary  fertility  enables  the  farmer  who  \v^ 
but  a  small  capital  to  increase  his  wealth  in  a  most  rapid 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


ill 


Is 
f  i 


II  i 


p 

1 

\ 

^ 

■. 

4 

i 

1 


:; 


130      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

manner  (I  mean  by  wealth  the  comforts  of  life)     His  cattle 
and  hogs  will  find  sufficient  food  in  the  woods   not  only 
for  them  to  subsist  upon,  but  to  fatten  them.    His  horses 
want  no  provender  the  greatest  part  of  the  year,  except 
Tane  and  wild  clover ;  but  he  may  afford  to  feed  them  with 
com  tSelecond  year.    His  garden,  with  little  attention, 
produces  him  all  the  culinary  roots  and  vegetables  necessary 
for  his  table;    and  the  prolific  increase  of  his  hogs  and 
poultry  will  furnish  him  the  second  year,  without  fearing 
?o  injure  his  stock,  with  a  plenty  of  ammal  food;  and  in 
three  or  four  years  his  stock  of  cattle  and  sheep  will  prove 
sufficient  to  supply  him  with  both  beef  and  mutton;  and 
he  may  continue  his  plan  at  the  same  Ume  of  increasing 
Ws^tik  of  those  useful  animals.    By  the  fourth  year^ 
provided  he  is  industrious,  he  may  have  his  plantation 
fn  sufficient  good  order  to  build  a  better  house,  which  he 
can  do  either  of  stone,  brick,  or  a  framed  wooden  building 
the  principal  articles  of  which  will  cost  him  httle  more 
than  the  labor  of  himself  and  domesUcs;    and  he  may 
readily  barter  or  sell  some  part  of  the  superfluous  pro- 
ductions of  his  farm,  which  it  will  by  this  time  afford,  and 
procure  such  things  as  he  may  stand  m  need  of  for  the 
completion  of  his  building.    Apples,  peaches  pears,  etc., 
he  ought  to  plant  when  he  finds  a  soil  or  eligible  situa- 
tion to  plant  them  in,  as  that  will  not  hmder,  or  in  any 
degree  divert,  him  from  the  object  of  his  aggrandizement. 
I  have  taken  no  notice  of  the  game  he  might  kill  as  it  is 
more  a  sacrifice  of  time  to  an  industrious  man  than  any 
real  advantage."    Once  cleared  and  brought  under  culti- 
vation, the  limestone  soil  yielded  amazing  crops  of  corn 
hemp,   and   tobacco.    The  buffalo   herds.  -^^--^1 
support   of   the   backwoodsmen,   disappeared   from    the 
cultivated  districts.     Cattle  were  pastured  on  the  native 
grasses  and  increased  both  in  weight  and  numbers.  ^h.k 
the  horses  brought  from  Virginia  grew  strong  and  fleet 
beyond  seaboard  standards. 

Manufactures  and  trade  developed  with  P«P"1^^7 J^"^ 
security.    Shoes  were  substituted  for  moccasins,  and  lintn 


J;    |f 


li 


I  * 


ir' 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         131 

and  woolen  cloth  for  buckskin,  all  being  made  up  at  home 
Tanneries  were  set  up  for  the  tanning  of  hides,  and  the 
pnmitive  hand  mills  were  superseded  by  gristmills  run  bv 
water  power.    Saddlers,  blacksmiths,  wheehv^^ht     and 
carpenters   earned   good   wages   in   the  growing   towns 
Sugar  was  manufactured  from  the  sap  of  the  forest  maple  ' 
Salt  was  evaporated  from  the  saline  springs  or  '<  licks  " 
on  the  Kanawha  in  sufficient  quantities  S  supply  the 
settlements  by  1793.    It  sold  at  from  $3  to  $c  Xshel 
but  this  was  less  than  the  cost  of  transpiting^bytack 
ho^e  across  the  mountains.    A  retail  store  las  op^nS 

bt  waT^rnJ'^' ""'  ^"^^  ™P°^^^^  ^--  PhiladeTptu? 
to  thfth  ^°.''''"'  ^"'  ^y  ^^g°"  ^°^d  or  pack  ?rail 
to  the  thnvmg  settlements  of  the  interior.  There  wasl^ 
yet  httle  money  in  circulaUon,  and  e.xchange  wa  effect^ 
by  barter:  salt,  peltries,  bear's  grease,  and  corn  bS 
a  fixed  money  value.    Even  taxes  were  paid  in  product 

son,  one  fourth  corn,  one  eighth  salt,  and  one  eiKhUi 
money,  was  legal  tender  along  the  Cumberland   ^ 


James  Flint, 
Letters  from 
America, 
129,  a79-28o. 


Micbaux, 
167,  203-204. 


Lambert, 
H.  526-527. 


McM  aster, 

Hist,  of 

People  of 

U.S., 

III,  485-486. 


f 


t'.  ! 


i  !' 


% 


ii 


f  'f 


!i!' 


Callendcr, 
2  J 1-238. 


b  I 


CHAPTER  V 

NATIONAL  BEGINNINGS 

Formative  Legislation 

The  Federal  Constitution.  —  The  necessity  of  establish- 
ing a  central  government  with  powers  adequate  to  the 
raising  of  a  revenue,  the  maintenance  of  a  uniform  and 
stable  currency,  the  negotiation  of  treaties  with  foreign 
nations,  and  the  arbitration  of  interstate  concerns,  had 
been  rendered  abundantly  evident  by  the  difficulties  of 
the  war  just  closed  and  by  four  years'  experience  of  anarchy 
under  the  Confederation.  The  thirteen  independent 
states  were  forced  to  set  up  a  central  authority  endowed 
with  all  the  powers  that  had  been  denied  to  the  British 
Parliament.  The  Federal  Congress,  though  fully  repre- 
sentative of  the  interests  of  the  people,  was  regarded  with 
suspicion  by  the  state  governments,  and  power  to  legislate 
for  business  interests,  even  of  a  general  nature,  was  grudg- 
ingly conceded.  Congress  was  accorded  power  "  to  lay 
and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts  and  excises  "  in  order 
"  to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common  defense 
and  general  welfare  of  the  United  States,"  "  to  regulate 
commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  among  the  severa! 
states,"  "  to  coin  money  and  regulate  the  value  thereof," 
to  maintain  copyrights  and  patents,  to  establish  [wst- 
offices  and  post  roads.  As  an  offset  to  commercial  re- 
strictions likely  to  be  imposed  by  the  Federal  Congress, 
the  Southern  representatives  secured  a  clause  forbidding 
the  levy  of  duties  on  exports. 

The  slates,  on  their  part,  surrendered  the  right  to  coin 
money,  emit  bills  of  credit,  or  make  anything  but  gold 
and  silver  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debt,  and  agreed  to 


National  Beginnings  133 

lay  no  tonnage  duties  or  duties  on  imports  without  the 
consent  of  Congress.  The  levying  of  such  indirect  taxeJ 
has  been  relegated  m  practice  to  the  United  States  govern! 
ment.  No  state  was  permitted  to  enter  into  any  agree- 
ment or  compact  with  another  state  or  with  a  foreign 
power,  and  exclusive  authority  to  negotiate  treaties  w!^ 
vested  in  the  President  and  Senate  ' 

An  attempt  to  rid  the  young  nation  of  the  blight  of  eip  .- 

was  made  m  the  Constitutional  Convention.    The  on-  ^'  ^^■^-^^^■ 
ponents  of  slavery  urged  that  the  slave  trade  should  be 
s topped  at  once  and  for  all  time;    but  the  devastation! 
of  war  had  considerably  reduced  'the  labo    force  of  X 
Southern  states,  and  the  delegates  from  South  Carol  na 

accen^'t?^'  '"f  ^^  ^^^'  ^^^^^  constituents  would"  ever 
accept  the  new  form  of  government  if  it  meant  the  cut 
tmg  off  of  further  supplies.     The  debate  resulted   n  com 

trrrefore^xsTr^  n  '"-^^^T^^  ^^^^^^'"^  ^  ^^"  "- 
o   twentv  nn.      '  ^"u^'"""  '^"  "^^  ^^^t^«  ^"  interval 

The  Northern  ''.^'r  '"  "^''^  '?  ^'"^"^  '^^'^  plantations 
their  fnt    .  ^'  ^^^^  ^^^'^^  «f  the  sinceritv  of 

o?  a  I  traffi '^'''i  ^«'^^^^t'°'^^  in  the  immediate  prohibUion 
of  all  traffic  m  slaves  at  their  own  ports.    The  ofTsettZ 
oncession  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  North  wa! 

joritv  for  f°"'^7"  P'^"^'-^.  requiring  a  two-thirds^  ma- 
jority for  the  adoption  of  any  restrictions  on  navigation 

jne  seaports,  findmg  their  trade  injured  by  the  British 
^  or  me  first  petitions  rece  ved  by  the  Fedonl  r,.n 
nation!]  „  *.  "■"  '"'™n"'Ses  looked  for  from  the 

Caroltaa  and  .L   J     shipmasters  of  Charleston,  South 
«a,  and  the  shipwrights  of  Philadelphia,  petitioned 


Dubois, 
The  Slave 
Trade, 
Ch.  VI,  VII. 


Lambert, 
Tra\els, 


Brissot  de 
VVarville, 
Travels  in 
U.S., 
274-3CX3. 


Bates, 

Am.  Marint", 

Ch.  VII. 


Am.  State- 
Papers, 
Finance, 
I,  5-8,  108. 


r  I 


i-  ( 


If; 

IV 


It; 


in 


f  i 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
I78Q-I70r. 
I,  176-1911 
333-289. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
1789-17Q1, 
I,  258,  259. 


134      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

to  the  same  effect,  begging  that  Congress  would  relieve  the 
disasters  that  had  fallen  on  shipyards  throughout  the 
United  States  in  consequence  of  the  dec  ine  in  that  branch 
of  business.  A  Massachusetts  representative,  Mr.  Good- 
hue, proposed  that  duties  to  the  amount  of  sixty  cents  per 
ton  be  levied  on  all  foreign  vessels  coming  into  our  harbors, 
as  an  offset  to  the  restrictions  imposed  on  American  vessels 
in  British  and  Continental  ports .  This  tonnage  duty  was 
protested  by  Tucker  of  South  Carolina.  "  Some  States, 
it  is  well  known,  have  more  tonnage  than  is  suflBcient  to 
carry  all  their  small  productions  to  a  market ;  of  course, 
a  duty  on  foreign  ships  will  not  affect  them.  Other  States, 
which  have  considerable  quantities  of  more  bulky  articles 
to  export,  and  require  a  greater  number  of  ships,  having 
few  or  none  of  their  own,  must  consequently  be  subjected 
to  the  whole  of  the  additional  duty ;  for,  whether  the  vessels 
be  foreign  or  American,  the  freight  will  be  the  same.  Much 
of  the  produce  of  South  Carolina  is  carried  off  by  foreigners, 
and  in  American  shipping  a  considerable  quantity  is  e.x- 
ported.  The  duty  will  be  paid  equally,  in  either  case,  by 
the  shipper,  for  the  freight  of  American  vessels  will  be 
raised  to  an  equality  with  the  other ;  and  of  all  this  money 
so  paid,  there  comes  into  the  Treasury  that  part  only 
collected  from  foreigners ;  the  rest,  as  I  said  before,  goes 
as  bounty  to  benefit  the  owners  of  American  ships." 

Of  the  437,641  tons  of  shipping  employed  in  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States,  about  one  third  was  owned 
by  foreigners.  The  proportion  varied  from  10  per  cent 
foreign  tonnage  in  the  ports  of  Massachusetts  to  67  per 
cent  in  those  of  Georgia.  It  was  evident  that  the  com- 
mercial states  would  gain  far  more  by  discriminating  duties 
than  an  agricultural  state  such  as  Virginia,  where  few- 
seagoing  vessels  were  built  or  owned  and  where  52  per  cent 
of  the  exports  was  carried  by  foreigners.  The  result  of 
the  debate  was  the  Navigation  Act  of  1789,  by  which 
preference  was  given  in  the  ports  of  the  United  States  to  ves- 
sels either  built  or  owned  by  American  citizens.  Such  ships 
were  to  pay  tonnage  duties  at  the  rate  of  six  cents  per  ton 


National  Beginnings  j,- 

of  hold  capacity;   vessels  built  in  the  United  St^f^  k  * 
partly  or  wholly  owned  by  foreigners  mc.    ^^^^?^.^"' 

at  every  entrv     tL  ^  -^  ^^'^  ''^"^^^  ^^"'^age  duty 

nopolythathasp^rsistMto  the  prS  1 1     ,   ',''  "°" 
commerce,  vessels  owned  and  buUUn  the  uJ::,'S 

:*  tr:r  .r  tSiTt  ^if tC^^' ""s 

and  so  secure  .he  Hon'sXe  o^h  \",^de'"  BrtTx'^ 

^'tn'Arc^tttScS^^-rt^^^^^ 

"err-™   '-^-^^^^^ 
.fe.S4^f-Sletlf;r^^^^^^^^ 

istry,  was  soon  evident  in  the  rapid  increase  i^Thrn^' 
berof  v^essek'lvinCTfK^  A  *1;''^  "it.rease  in  the  num- 

^«i^".r"ad'J    ;ried'o^i?S,ifei°St^f  '"^  P?-""'""  "' 
from  2,  6o.rcenr.L.  ,     ^"'"^  States  vessels  increased 

ostered  by  special   discrimination,     The   tariff  of    rTs 

from  India  and  Cht.      \"'^-^'  ""'  °"  ^'^^^  ''"P"^'^^ 

of  from  sTxTo  ,  ^       "  ^^'■'•^"  ''"''^'^-    'Tea  paid  a  duty 

irom  SIX  to  twelve  cents  per  pound  when  imported  in 


Holmeat 
U.S.A., 

187-195. 
208- J 10, 
216-236. 

Abbot, 
Ch.  I. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 

I,  168-170. 


t  . 

! 

I" 


% 
f 
II 


i 


fl 


si;  ^ 


1 36      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


\M 


DlSTRlBUriUN   OF   PoPUL.\TION,    l/iJO 


9 


s 


.21- 


National  Beginnings 


m 


American  vessels  direct  from  China ;  when  brought  in  an 
American  vessel  from  a  British  or  European  port,  the  duty 
paid  varied  from  eight  to  twenty  six  cents;  but  if  the 
whole  journey  was  made  in  foreign  bottoms,  the  cuarge 
was  from  fifteen  to  forty-five  cents.  Thus  the  East  India 
Company's  monopoly  was  effectually  broken  so  far  as 
commerce  with  America  was  concerned.  The  "Chin;. 
trade  "  centered  in  Boston,  Salem,  and  Providence.  A. 
these  ports  Yankee  clippers  took  on  lumber,  naval  stores, 
salt  fish,  rum,  and  ginseng,  then  made  their  way  round  the 
Cape  of  (iood  Hope,  exchanging  the  cargo  en  route  for 
Madeira  wine,  the  precious  metals,  and  other  goods  suited 
to  the  Oriental  trade.  Arrived  at  its  ultimate  destination, 
these  ^oods  were  bartered  for  tea,  spices,  coftee,  silks, 
nankeen,  India  muslins,  saltpeter,  etc.,  —  articles  of  great 
value  in  proportion  to  bulk.  On  returning  home,  this  cargo 
might  be  sold  at  a  profit  or  reshipped  for  some  European 
port.  Trade  with  the  Orient  went  far  toward  compensat- 
ing the  merchants  of  New  England  for  the  exclusion  of 
American  vessels  from  the  portF  of  the  British  West 
Indies. 

Congressional  legislation  in  behalf  of  commerce  was 
not  limited  to  discrimination  against  foreign  shipping. 
In  1790  was  passed  the  Act  for  the  Government  ana  Regu- 
l-'ion  of  American  Seamen.  Under  this  law  a  written 
c  ;itract,  specif j'ing  the  voyage  for  which  service  was  un- 
c?  aken  and  the  rate  of  wages  to  be  paid,  must  be  signed 
by  master  and  man  and  recorded  by  a  United  States 
official.  Seamen  deserting  the  ship  forfeited  their  wages 
and  might  be  reclaimed  and  forced  to  serve  to  the  end  of 
the  voyage.  The  captain,  on  the  other  hand,  was  "-equired 
to  furnish  suitable  living  accommodations,  and  was  liable 
to  penalty  if  he  abandoned  .  n  American  sailor  in  a  foreign 
port.  An  act  of  1802  provided  for  the  election  of  light- 
houses along  the  coast,  especially  on  Long  Island  Sound, 
light  muney  being  provided  by  .  special  tax  of  fifty  cents 
per  ton  on  foreign  vessels.  In  1807  an  apprcvmation  of 
850,000  was  made  for  the  coast  survey. 


if 


Marvin, 
Ch.  X. 

Hawthorne, 
Introduction 
tc  Scarlet 
Lptter. 

Michaux, 

Kimball, 
East  India 
Tn.l.-  of 
Providence. 


(t 


Auoot, 
Ch.  X. 


If 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  iSs-igj. 


McLaughlin, 
,.     ,                               Ch.VI. 

i  , 

If'    t 

,     .                                  Snow, 

Treaties  and 
Topics  in 
Am.  Diplo- 

f  1                                      macy,  12-31 

i  I 

Stark. 

Abolition  of 
Privateering. 


Franklin's 
Works. 
On  War, 
X,  (>o  6j; 
On  Privateer- 
inn.  VIM, 

846    24Q. 


138      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Commercial  Treaties.  —  The  governments  of  Europe 
were  eager  to  secure  to  their  subjects  some  share  in  the 
American  trade  hitherto  monopolized  by  Great  Britain. 
Early  in  the  course  of  the  War  for  Independence  overtures 
were  made  by  our  commissioners  at  the  courts  of  Holland, 
France,  and  Spain  looking  toward  commercial  negotiations. 
On  the  same  day  on  which  the  treaty  of  alliance  was  con- 
cluded between  Louis  XVI  and  the  seceding  colonies 
(January  30,  1778)  a  treaty  was  signed  establishing  mu- 
tually advantageous  trade  relations  between  France  and 
the  United  States  of  America.  Fishing  rights  on  the  Grand 
Banks  were  to  be  shared  on  equal  terms  by  French  and 
American  fishermen,  trade  with  the  French  West  Indies 
was  thrown  open  to  our  vessels,  and  France  was  assured 
the  most  favorable  terms  in  American  ports.  The  tw(j 
nations  entered  into  important  guarantees  concerning  the 
exemption  of  neutral  trade  from  tlie  ^vastations  of  war. 
The  citizens  of  each  were  permitted  to  trade  freely  with  the 
enemies  of  the  other,  and  the  principle  that  free  ships 
make  free  goods  and  free  passengers  was  clearly  enunciated. 
Only  munitions  of  war  and  persons  engaged  in  the  military 
service  of  the  enemy  were  subject  to  capture.  Privateer- 
ing was  abandoned  so  far  as  affected  the  signatory  powers, 
"  the  citizens  of  each  party  "  being  "  prohibited  from  takinir 
commissions  from  a  third  party  to  cruise  against  each 
other."  The  introductit-n  of  these  advanced  principles 
of  international  law  into  the  first  treaty  negotiated  by 
the  United  States  had  deep  significance.  In  the  ne.xt  ton 
years  most  of  the  nations  of  Europe  followed  the  lead  fl 
Russia  and  France  in  the  effort  to  secure  neutral  tradr 
against  the  devastations  of  war.  Benjamin  Franklin 
negotiated  the  treaty  with  Prussia  (1785)  in  which  the 
exemption  of  private  pro{)erty  from  confiscation  and  the 
immunity  of  neutral  ships  was  guaranteed,  and  privatirr- 
ing  was  uhandoncd  as  between  the  contracting  part  it-. 
Contemporary  treaties  with  Sweden,  Denmark,  ainl 
Portugal  were  framed  to  the  same  intent.  In  his  treatises 
«»n  war  and  on  privateering,  our  first    great   diplomatist 


National  Beginnings 


139 


it":  j'i"  i'  "^  ""1^  -  Si-™- 

uicicc,  dna  sucn  pnvateers  were  to  K..  tro-.-^j 

in  the  admiralty  ccurts     TV.!  "^"^  ^^  P'''^**^ 

iration  of  tKof    •    ^""^'  "'  ^"^  ^Iississipp,,  and  free  navi-   Hi^t-  of  U.s . 

gation  of  that  nver  to  the  Gulf  was  temporarilv  granted    "•  S"-5.q. 

toge  her  wUh  rights  of  de,x>sit  at  Xew  Orleans     ^  ' 

On  the  eve  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars  -  a  contest  that  was 

^, endure  for  twenty  years  and  to  involve  c"en  JaUv  not 

h^nit'r^?  T^  '"^"^^  '"^  ^"  ^he  statesof  Ku^o^^e- 
«riiain  n^tbted    "v  lohnTv""''  ''"'"'^  "'^"^  ^^^^^  ^'••^'•"• 
stipulations  n7tr     \  V       /^  '"  '794.  no  satisfactory   His.  ..f  i  .s.. 
stipulations  as  to  neutral  trade  were  obtained.     Not  arms   "-^h  -XXII, 
and  ammunition  only    but  mvnl   «t«r...         i    r      ,     T  ^XiV. 
destined  for  f>,„  ^"'^'^^    ^"^    foodstuffs  XXV 

o    war  aid       .  •  '?'"'^  '  ""^  "^''■^^^  ^^'^^"'"l  contraband 
calon,   and   the  pruileRe  of  ,)rixateennR   was   M>hdd    ■"""^"^«' 
r-  sp,  e  of  the  urgent   representations  of  the  An    rican    '''"" 
comm,ss,oner.     Some  abatement  of  ,he  \a  'riticm  TC 
was  however,  secured.     American  ^•es  els  w^  ^^or^M 
-  sso  the  ports  of  the  British  domini<,ns  in  Ku^td 

trule   wI.kT       •     ^""•\  '''""the"   «frt   to  be  allowed   t.. 
^rutigjng  convc^5lun  was  made  on  cond Hon 


tl 


lyS  .■!(). 


.'!• 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  U.S.. 
Ch.  I,  II. 
Rahheno, 
III    I.VV 
Shcflficld,  4- 


If 


140      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

that  our  government  would  surrender  the  right  to  trans- 
port molasses,  sugar,  coffee,  cocoa,  or  cotton  from  America 
or  the  British  West  Indies  to  any  part  of  the  world.  The 
price  of  entry  to  the  coveted  ports  was  to  be  the  loss  of  the 
carrying  trade  in  the  products  of  these  islands,  except  to 
American  markets.  This  article  of  the  treaty  was  rejected 
by  the  Senate,  and  commerce  with  the  British  West  Indies 
only  continued  on  sufferance. 

Notwithstanding  its  unsatisfactory  character,  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  with  England  gave  great  offense  to  France. 
The  Directorate  declared  the  treaty  of  1778  at  an  end; 
damaging  restrictions  were  imposed  on  our  commerce  with 
the  French  West  Indies,  flour  and  salt  fish  —  our  stock  in 
<^jade  —  being  e.xcluded,  and  it  was  decreed  that  hereafter 
French  men-of-war  and  privateers  would  "  treat  neutral 
vessels  either  as  to  confiscation,  as  to  searches  or  capture 
in  the  same  manner  as  they  shall  suffer  the  English  to 
treat    them."    The    American    government    found    itself 
involved  in  a  troublesome  controversy  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  new  Republic,  who  naturally  held  that 
France  was  entitled  to  some  return  service  for  the  aid  ren- 
dered the  United  States  in  the  closing  years  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.     President  Washington  and  his  advisers  had 
much  ado  to  keep  French  sympathizers  in  the  United  States 
from  making  war  on  England,  the  common  antagonist. 

Legislation  in  Behalf  of  Manufactures.  —  The  various 
industries  set  on  f(X)t  during  the  war  when  there  was  litlk' 
or  no  importation  and  domestic  goods  had  a  practical 
monojwly  of  the  home  market,  were  threatened  with  ruin 
now  that  the  Peace  had  opened  our  ports  to  the  commenr 
of  the  world.  English  manufacturers  had  an  accumulatt<l 
stock  of  woolens,  cotton  cloth,  and  ironware  that  must  lif 
disposed  of  even  at  a  loss.  They  were  ready  to  sell  their 
goo<ls  at  25  iier  cent  below  London  i)rices  in  order  to  reco\  *  r 
their  .\merican  custom.  European  merchants  also  wtic 
eager  to  gain  admission  to  the  promising  market  hithert.. 
monopolized  by  Cireat  Britain.  Shi[)s  bearing  sail  dm  k 
and  linen  from  Holland  and   Russia,  muslins,    lankeen-, 


-m. 


r7!?ns^ 


National  Beginnings  i^j 

and  sUks  from  India  and  China,   thronged  our  porf^ 
They  found  eager  purchasers,  for  wealthy  Americans  had 
had  enough  of  homespun  and  seized  their  first  chance 
to  buy  finer  stuffs.     In   the  year  following  the  Peace 
Si8,397,33S  worth  of  goods  was  brought  into  the  country' 
and  but  $3,746,725  was  exported  in  exchange.     By  170c 
we  had  accumulated  an  unfaxorable  balance  of  trade  to 
the  amount  of  $53,992,655.     The  discrepancy  had  to  be 
made  good  in  gold  and  silver,  commodities  that  could 
not  well  be  spared.     American  manufacturers  protested 
that,  handicapped  as  they  were  by  high-priced  labor  and 
lack  of  machinery,  they  could  not  compete  in  an  open 
market  with  the  products  of  English  factories  and  Oriental 
looms,  and  they  begged  for  protection.     A  petition  ad- 
dressed to  Congress  by  the  tradesmen  and  manufacturers 
of  the  town  of  Baltimore  represented  the  sentiment  of  the 
manufacturing  sections  of  the  country.     "  Since  the  close 
of  the  late  war,  and  the  completion  of  the  Revolution 
they  have  observed  with  serious  regret  the  manufacturing 
and  the  trading  interest  of  the  country  rapidly  declining 
and  the  attempts  of  the  State  Legislatures  to  remedy  the 
e\il  failing  of  their  object ;  that,  in  tlie  present  melancholy 
state  o    our  countr>',  the  number  of  poor  increasing  for 
want  of  employment,  foreign  debts  accumulating,  houses 
and  lands  depreciating  in  value,  and  trade  and  manu- 
factures languishing  and  expiring,  they  look   up  to  the 
Supreme  Legislature  of  the  United  States  as  the  guardian 
of  the  whole  empire,  and  from  their  united  wisdom  and 
patriotism,  and  ardent    love  of  their  country,  ext)ect  to 
cenve  that  aid  and  assistance  which  alone  can  dissipate 
t'H'.r  just  ai)prehensions.  and  animate  them  with  hopes 
nf  success  in  future,  by  imposing  on  all  foreign  articles 
which  can  be  made  in  America,  such  duties  as  will  give 
Must  and  decided  preference  to  their  labors;   discounte- 
■'ancitig  that  trade  which  tends  so  materially  to  injure  them 
•"'"  impoverish  their  country;    measures  which,  in  their 
c"nst>(|uences,  may  also  contribute  to  the  discharge  of  the 
"''tional  debt  and  the  due  support  of  the  CJovernment  " 


Pitkin. 

Statistical 

View, 


Atinals  of 
ConRress, 
I78Q-I7qi, 
I,  115-U6. 


!l 


i. 


i: 


H 


U- 


III 


Annals  of 

Congress, 

1789-17Q1. 

I,  102,  168, 

1Q2-231, 

291-317. 

324-336- 

Stan  wood. 
Am.  Tariff 
Controver- 
sies, I,  Ch. 
III. 


Bishop, 
I,  250-26J. 


Bishop, 
I,  los  20X. 


142      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  levying  of  customs  duties,  not  merely  for  revenue, 
but  for  the  protection  of  home  manufactures,  was  fully 
debated  in  the  first  session  of  the  Federal  Congress.     In 
the  very  able  tariff  debate  of  1789,  the  interests  of  the 
several  sections  of  the  country  were  clearly  brought  out. 
The  delegates  from   the   manufacturing   states  — Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  — 
suggested  that  the  opportunity  be  utilized  to  "  protect  our 
infant   manufactures "   against   the  competition  of  low- 
priced  foreign  goods.     They  urged  that  duties  should  be 
so  laid  as  to  advance  the  price  of  the  competing  import 
to  the  point  at  which  the  domestic  product  could  sell  with 
profit.    The  agricultural  states  were,  in  general,  opposed 
to  import  duties,  since  they  were  accustomed  to  rely  upon 
foreign    manufactures,    and   the   enhanced   price   would 
amount  to  a  tax  on  consumption.     Each  delegate  ad- 
vocated protection  for  the  products  of  his  own  state,  but 
deprecated  the  duties  on  commodities  purchased  by  his 
constituency.     For  e.xample,  Fitzsimons  of  Pennsylvania 
proposed  protection  for  the  steel  industry  recently  estab- 
lished in  that  state,  but  Tucker  of  South  Carolina  protested 
that  "  the  smallest  tax  on  steel  would  be  a  burden  on 
agriculture."    A  compromise  of   thc'>e  interests  was  ef- 
fected at  fifty-six  cents  a  hundredweight.     Fitzsimons  ad- 
vocated a  duty  on  beer,  representing  that  the  brewing  in- 
dustry, both  in   Philadelphia  and   Xew   York,  was  one 
"highly    deserving    of    encouragement."     Malt    liquors 
were,  he  argued,  less  intoxicating  than  rum,  and  as  an 
element  of  diet  were  far  preferable.     This   consideration, 
together  with  the  indirect  advantage  that   would   accrue 
to  the  growers  of  hops  and  barley,  induced  Congress  to 
imf)ose  a  duty  of  five  cents  a  gallon  on  ale  and  beer.     Penn- 
sylvania's delegates   fuither  desired   protection   for    htr 
paper  manufactures,  arguing  that  the  capacity  of  the  mills 
estalilished  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  revolutionary  press 
was  sufficient  to  supply  the  markets  of  this  and  the  neigh 
boring  states  with  the  coarser  grades  of  paper,  and  that  tlv 
industry  would  be  ruined  if  the  protection  accorded  by 


National  Beginnings 


143 


the  aate  tariff  was  now  withdrawn.    A  duty  of  7.5  per 
cent  ad  valorem  was  voted  without  debate.    The  chandlers 
of  Phiiadelphia  and  those  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  had  brought 
the  manufacture  of  wax,  spermaceti,  and  tallow  candles 
to  such  a  ckgree  of  perfection  that  they  expected  in  a  few 
years  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  the  western  hemisphere ; 
but  they  must  be  protected  against  wholesale  importa- 
tions from  Ireland  and  Russia.     It  was  urged  that  candles 
might  eventually  lie  made  in  America  "  cheaper  than  could 
be  imported  if  a  small  encouragement  was  held  out  to  them, 
since  the  raw  materials  were  to  be  had  in  abundance.'' 
This  tax  on  light  was  protested  by  Tucker  in  the  interest 
of  consumers ;  nevertheless,  a  duty  of  two  cents  a  pound 
was  imposed  on  tallow  and  six  cents  on  wax  and  spermaceti 
candles.     Carroll  of  Mar>'iand  asked  for  and  secured  a  Bishop, 
duty  of  ten  per  cent  on  glass  manufactures  in  the  behalf  i-  ^h-  X. 
of  works  recently  established  near  Fredericktown. 

The  manufacturing  interests  of  New  England  were  by 
no  means  neglected.     Connecticut  delegates  asked  that 
the  iron  works  of  Litchfield  County  should  be  secured 
in  their  hold  on  the  home  market,  and  a  duty  of  7.5  per 
cent  was  accordingly  laid  on  ship's  anchors.    Fisher  Ames 
of  Massachusetts  asked  for  a  protective  duty  on  nails. 
This,  he  argued,  was  a  domestic  industry,  requiring  small 
capital  and  no  machinery,  and  employing  labor  that  would 
otherwise  be  wasted.     "  In  winter,  and  on  evenings  when  Annals  of 
little  other  work  is  done,  great  quantities  of  nails  are  made  ^'""Kf'^s''- 
even  by  the  children;    perhaps  enough  might  be  manu-  j.'tsr'^'"' 
factured  in  this  way  to  supply  the  continent,"  since  "  the 
business  could  be  prosecuted  in  a  similar  manner  in  every 
state  exerting   equal   industry."    Madison   and   Tucker 
l)rotested  in  the  interest  of  the  men  who  were  building 
houses  and  ships,  but  a  duty  of  a  cent  a  pound  was  granted. 
The  manufacturers  of  beaver  hats  in  Boston.  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia  had  greatly  profited  by  the  removal  of 
the  British  restrictions  on  exportation  and  the  mono|)oly 
t)f  the  home  market  consequent  on  the  war.    They  wore 
now  accorded  a  protective  duty  of  7.5  per  cent,  iJst  the 


li 


I « 


Bishop, 
I,  497-498. 


Bishop, 
I,  450-464. 


i 


144      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

business  be  injured  by  the  cheaper  felt  hats  imported  from 
England.  The  manufacture  of  wool  cards  had  come  to  be 
an  industry  of  importance  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston, 
because  of  a  labor-saving  machine  that  reduced  by  half 
the  number  of  workingmen  required  to  bend  the  wire,  and 
a  duty  of  fifty  cents  per  dozen,  amounting  to  7.5  per  cent 
ad  valorem,  was  accorded  them.  Protective  duties  were 
also  laid  on  boots  and  shoes  and  galoshes.  Leather  manu- 
factures were  in  a  flourishing  state  because  raw  material 
in  the  shape  of  hides,  bark  for  tanning,  and  oil  for  dressing 
was  abundant  and  cheap,  and  no  machinery  was  required. 
The  business  was  carried  on  in  the  shop  of  the  master 
craftsman  with  the  assistance  of  half  a  dozen  apprentices 
and  journeymen.  The  war  demand,  coupled  with  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  goods,  had  given  a  marked  impulse 
to  this  industry.  Lynn  boasted  two  hundred  master 
craftsmen  and  six  hundred  other  workmen,  and  was  ex- 
porting from  one  to  three  hundred  thousand  shoes  per  year. 
The  leather  industry  centered  then,  a?  now,  in  the  maritime 
counties  of  Massachusetts,  but  it  had  developed  to  con- 
siderable proportions  in  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, New  Jersey,  and  Maryland.  Farther  south  where 
hides  were  tanned  for  exportation  and  nothing  but  the 
coarsest  shoes  for  field  laborers  were  made  up  on  the  planta- 
tions, the  tax  on  tine  wear  was  felt  to  be  a  burden. 

The  interests  of  the  Yankee  farmers  were  considered  in 
the  laying  of  import  duties  on  cheese  and  cider,  though  the 
pr()|M)sition  to  levy  customs  charges  on  salt  beef,  pork,  and 
butter  was  rejected  on  the  ground  that  since  we  produced 
already  more  t)f  these  articles  than  we  could  consume  and 
none  was  imported,  such  duties  would  be  useless.  Duties 
on  nails,  IxKJts  and  shoes,  ready-made  clothing,  etc.,  gave 
welcome  protection  to  the  by-industries  of  the  farmhouse. 
Yankee  tlshermen  were  protected  against  the  competition 
of  their  Canadian  rivals  by  a  duty  of  fifty  cents  a  quintal 
on  dried,  and  seventy-five  cents  a  barrel  on  pickled,  fish. 
South  Carolina  delegates  were  quite  ready  to  accept  pro- 
tection in  the  shape  of  a  duty  of  sixteen  cents  a  |)ound  on 


National  Beginnings 


145 


i 


indigo,  and  were  reconciled  to  the  duty  on  candles  because 
beeswax  was  a  product  of  that  state.    A  duty  on  hemp  was 
urged  in  the  interests  of  the  farmers  of  the  Ohio  Valley, 
where  thousands  of  acres  of  native  hemp  were  seeking  a 
market,  but  this  tax  of  sixty  cents  a  hundredweight  on 
their  raw  material  was  protested  by  the  cordage  manu- 
facturers.   Since  the  home-grown  hemp  could  not  supply 
the  ropewalks  of  New  England,  and  half  the  amount 
needed  was  being  imported  from  the  Baltic,  the  manu- 
facturers protested  that  the  prosperity  of  the  cordage  in- 
dustry would  be  jeopardized  unless  a  compensating  duty 
was  levied  on  imported  goods.    The  New  England  repre- 
sentatives secured  a  duty  of  seventy-five  cents  a  hundred- 
weight on  tarred  and  ninety  cents  on  untarred  rope,  and 
two  dollars  a  hundredweight  on  pack  thread.     Both  duties 
were  denounced  by  the  shipping  interest  of  Massachusetts 
on  the  ground  that  a  rise  in  the  price  of  cordage  would 
enhance  the  cost  of  ships,  and  by  the  merchants  of  South 
Carolina  because  more  costly  ships  would  mean  higher 
freight  rates. 

The  conflict  of  interest  between  producer  and  consumer 
between  the  producer  of  the  raw  material  and  the  producer 
of  the  finished  article,  ga\-e  rise  to  protracted  controver'^ies 
among  the  representatives  of  rival  industries.     A  duty  of  Annals  of 
two  cents  a  bushel  was  laid  on  coal  in  behalf  of  the  m'ines  Congress, 
recently  opened   near   Richmond,   Virginia.     They   were  I'^-i'^'- 
capable    it  was  believed,  of  supplying  the  whole  of  the   \\-%T' 
Lnited  States  if  their  owners  might  be  protected  against  324-335. 
the  competing  product  brought  over  from   England   as 
ballast,  but  this  duty  was  protested  as  a  tax  on  fuel  by 
the  manufacturers  of  Pennsylvania.     The  rich  deposits 
ot  their  own  state  had  not  yet  been  discovered.     A  duty 
of  ten  cents  a  bushel  was  laid  on  salt,  primarily  for  revenue, 
though  It  gave  incidental  protection  to  the  nascent  salt 
works  of  New  Bedford  and  Syracuse.     We  had  imported 
trom  Europe  and  the  West  Indies,  in  1769.  more  than  a 
million  bushels,  at  a  cost  of  one  shilling  a  bushel      The 
duty  nearly  doubled  the  price,  and  the  tax  was  energetically 


ii 


Annals  of 
Contjress, 
i7Q'-'703. 
971-10J4. 


146      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

opposed  by  the  spokesmen  of  the  New  England  fisheries. 
The  cattlemen  of  the  "  back  country  "  of  the  Carolinas 
and  the  pioneer  farmers  beyond  the  mountains  were  also 
large  consumers  of  salt  and  could  ill  afford  any  addition 
to  the  already  heavy  cost  of  this  necessity.  The  duty  of 
fifteen  cents  a  gallon  on  Jamaica  rum  was  hotly  contested 
by  a  Georgia  delegate,  not  only  because  his  constituents 
were  of  the  consumers  of  this  beverage,  but  because  rum 
was  an  essential  factor  in  their  lumber  trade  with  the 
West  Indies.  This  growing  commerce  would  be  jeopardized 
if  the  principal  return  cargo  was  subjected  to  so  heavy 
a  duty.  When  the  rate  was  lowered  to  ten  cents,  the  New 
England  representatives  urged  that  the  tax  of  eight  cents 
a  gallon  on  molasses  be  reduced  in  proportion,  arguing  that 
molasses  was  not  only  the  raw  material  of  the  distilleries, 
but  an  article  of  general  consumption,  especially  among 
the  poor,  and  that  it  was  an  indispensable  factor  in  New 
England's  West  India  trade.  The  strenuous  endeavors 
of  Fisher  Ames  and  his  colleagues  finally  secured  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  duty  on  molasses  to  two  and  one  half  cents 
a  gallon,  with  a  drawback  in  case  the  rum  was  exported 
for  sale.  Other  raw  materials,  such  as  barley,  dyestuffs 
(except  indigo),  undressed  hides,  furs,  and  all  the  metals, 
were  admitted  free  of  duty.  The  loss  to  the  government 
in  the  way  of  potential  revenue  was  considerable,  but  it 
was  evidently  unwise  to  levy  taxes  on  imports  so  greatly 
needed  by  manufacturers.  Increasing  returns  were  realized, 
however,  from  the  purely  revenue  duties  levied  on  coffee, 
tea,  sugar,  wines,  and  other  luxuries  and  from  the  five  per 
cent  ad  valorem  duty  imposed  on  all  non-enumerated  im- 
ports. The  customs  receipts  ($4,cxx>,ooo  in  1791)  were 
soon  adequate  to  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  government . 
Hamilton's  Report  on  Manufacturers.  —  In  1791  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  submitted  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  a  report  on  the  status  of 
manufactures,  in  which  the  contemporary  argument  fi>r 
protection  was  clt-arly  set  forth.  According  to  this  great 
financier,  industrial  conditions  fully  justified  the  levyinj; 


?v^3r 


National  Beginnings 


H7 


of  customs  duties,  not  merely  for  revenue,  but  for  the  sake 
of  defending  our  infant  manufactures  against  the  com- 
petition of  countries  better  equipped  for  the  production 
of  these  goods.    American   manufacturers   were  handi- 
capped by  scarcity  of  labor  and  capital.    They  must  pay 
higher  wages  and  higher  interest  rates  than  their  English 
rivals,  and  they  had  not  as  yet  secured  textile  machinery. 
These  disadvantages  would  soon  be  overcome  if  adequate 
encouragement  were  held  out  to  adventurers  in  this  line 
of  business.     For  higi'-cost  labor  would  be  substituted 
labor-saving  machinery  and  operatives  of  a  cheaper  grade 
could  be  utilized,  e.g.  "  Women  and  children  are  rendered 
more  useful,  and  the  latter  more  easily  useful,  by  manufac- 
turing establishments,  than  they  would  otherwise  be.    Of 
the  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  cotton  manufactories 
of  Great  Britain,  it  is  computed  that  four  sevenths,  neariy, 
are  women  and  children ;  of  whom  the  greatest  proportion 
are  children  and  many  of  them  of  a  tender  age."    The 
report  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  emigration  from 
the  Old  Worid  was  bringing  crowds  of  artisans  to  our  ports, 
seeking  employment  in  a  country  where  wages  were  high 
and  the  cost  of  living  low ;  thus  the  deficiency  in  supply 
would  soon  be  made  good.    Capital ,  too,  would  be  attracted 
from  abroad  by  the  promising  opportunities  for  invest- 
ment here  offered. 

Hamilton  recommended  the  protection  of  textile  manu- 
factures, metal  and  glass  works,  sugar  refineries,  together 
with  all  the  finished  products  from  leather,  wood,  and 
cereals,  but  not  in  the  interest  of  the  manufacturers  alone. 
Our  merchants  might  be  compensated  for  their  losses  in 
transatlantic  commerce  by  the  development  of  domestic 
trade  and  the  raw  materials  of  the  Southern  would  be  ex- 
changed for  the  manufactures  of  the  Northern  states, 
to  the  mutual  advantage  of  both  sections.  Our  far.ners 
and  planters  and  lumbermen  who  were  finding  the  foreign 
market  for  their  prcxlucts  increasingly  precarious  would 
soon  realize  the  advantage  of  a  home  market  in  the  manu- 
Uic'uring  towns,  with   their  growing  demand   for  food- 


Rabbeno, 

Taussig, 
State  Papers 
and  Speeches 
on  the 
TarifiF, 
1-107. 

Stan  wood, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 


Hamilton's 
Works. 
IV,  7o-ig8. 

.Annals  of 
Congress, 

1791-1793. 
982. 


i    m 


I 
1^ 


148      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
17QI-179.?, 
looi— 1002. 


In 


Rabbeno, 

I34-I4S- 

Dewey, 

80-84. 


Stuffs  and  raw  materials.  Consumers  would  be  obliged 
to  pay  higher  prices  for  the  protected  commodities  during 
the  initial  years  of  this  policy,  but  the  burden  would  be 
fully  offset  by  ultimate  gains.  Prices  would  eventually 
fall  under  the  operation  of  domestic  competition,  to  a  point 
lower  than  that  at  which  the  foreign  commodity,  subject 
to  heavy  freight  rates,  could  be  furnished  to  the  American 
market.  "  When  a  domestic  manufacture  has  attained 
to  perfection,  and  has  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  it 
a  competent  number  of  persons,  it  invariably  becomes 
cheaper.  Being  free  from  the  heavy  charges  which  attend 
the  importation  of  foreign  commodities,  it  can  be  afforded, 
and  accordingly  seldom  or  never  fails  to  be  sold  cheaper, 
in  process  of  time,  than  was  the  foreign  article  for  which 
it  is  a  substitute.  The  internal  competition  which  takes 
place  soon  does  away  with  everything  like  monopoly, 
and  by  degrees  reduces  the  price  of  the  article  to  the  mini- 
mum of  a  reasonable  profit  on  the  capital  employed. 
This  accords  with  the  reason  of  the  thing  and  with  ex- 
perience." According  to  Hamilton,  the  United  States 
could  not  afford  to  remain  an  agricultural  community, 
dependent  on  foreigners  for  the  purchase  of  supplies  and 
the  disposal  of  surplus  products.  National  self-sufficiency 
was  essential  to  national  independence,  and  every  class 
and  section  must  benefit  in  the  end  by  the  promotion  of 
an  all-round  industrial  development. 

The  tariff  legislation  of  the  years  immediately  following 
was  quite  in  the  spirit  of  Hamilton's  recommendations. 
There  was  a  steady  increase  of  duties  on  manufactured 
articles,  the  usual  rate  of  1789  being  7.5  per  cent,  that  of 
1792  being  10  per  cent,  that  of  1795,  15  per  cent.  Raw- 
materials,  with  the  exception  of  indigo,  hemp,  and  molasst"^, 
were  left  free  from  taxation.  The  list  of  revenue  duties 
was  increased,  articles  of  luxury,  such  as  lemons,  oranges, 
olives,  spices,  raisins,  and  wines,  being  selected  to  supply 
the  government  income. 

The  Patent  Law.  —  Among  the  eady  enactments  in- 
tended  to   promote   the   industrial   development   of   the 


National  Beginnings 


149 


country,  none  was  wiser  or  more  timely  than  the  patent 
law.  The  Act  of  1790  secured  to  the  inventor  of  "  any 
useful  art,  manufacture,  engine,  machine,  or  device,  or  any 


Fitch's  Second  Boat 

improvement  therein  not  before  known  or  used,"  exclusive 
monoix)Iy  of  the  sale  of  such  patent  for  a  term  not  exceed- 
ing fourteen  years.     Under  this  guarantee  of  the  benefits 


Fitch's  Third  Boat 

accruing  from  a  successful  process,  inventive  genius  re- 
ceived a  notable  stimulus.  One  of  the  first  to  a|  ,.ly  for 
a  patent  monopoly  was  John  Fitch,  the  designer  of  a'  steam 
engine  adapted  to  the  propelling  of  a  boat .     The  petitioner 


li 


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(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


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M . 


U.S.  Census, 
iS8o,  IV. 
Report  on 
Steam 
Navigation 
in  U.S., 
1-4. 


Brissot  de 

Warville, 

aiS-337. 


Hammond, 
Cotton  ("iil- 
tiire  ami  Cot- 
ton Trade, 
C  1.  I. 

Bishop, 


150      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

"  trusts  no  interference  with  him  in  propelling  boats  by 
steam,  under  any  pretence  of  a  different  mode  of  appli- 
cation, will  be  permitted;  for  should  that  be  the  case, 
the  employment  of  his  time,  and  the  amazing  expense 
attending  the  perfecting  of  his  scheme,  would,  whilst  they 
gave  the  world  a  valuable  discovery,  and  to  America 
peculiar   and   important   advantages,    eventuate    in    the 
total  ruin  of  your  petitioner;    for  a  thousand  different 
modes  may  be  applied  by  subsequent  navigators,  all  of 
them  benefiting  by  the  expense  and  persevering  labor  of 
your  petitioner,  and  thus  sharing  with  him  those  profits, 
which  they  never  earned."     He  prays,  therefore,  that  he 
may  be  granted  an  "  exclusive  right  to  the  use  of  steam 
navigation  for  a  limited  time."     Fitch  anticipated  that 
his  invention  would  greatly  benefit  the  trans-AUeghany 
territory.     "  The  western  waters  of  the  United  States, 
which  have  hitherto  been  navigated  with  difficulty  and 
expense,  may  now  be  ascended  with  safety,  conveniency, 
and  great  velocity ;  consequently,  by  these  means,  an  im- 
mediate increased  value  will  be  given  to  the  western  terri- 
tory ;  all  the  internal  waters  of  the  United  States  will  be 
rendered  much  more  convenient  and  safe,  and  the  carriage 
on  them  much  more  expeditious;    that   from   these  ad- 
\'antages  will  result  a  great  saving  in  the  labor  of  men  and 
horses,  as  well  as  expense  to  the  traveler."     The  patent 
was  allowed,  and  Fitch's  steamboat,  propelled  by  paddles, 
made  her  first  voyage  on  the  Delaware  in  1787.     Regular 
trips  were  made  from  Philadelphia  to  Trenton,  Wilmington, 
Gray's  Ferry,  and  return  for  the  four  summer  months  of 
1790,  but  the  experiment  was  soon  abandoned. 

A  more  immediately  successful  invention  was  Eli  Whit- 
ney's saw  gin  for  removing  seeds  from  the  cotton  boll, 
patented  in  170^.  The  East  Indian  method  of  extracting 
the  seeds  by  hand  or  by  n)ller  mill  had  been  in  use.  By 
the  new  process  the  cotton  was  dragged  through  a  wire 
screen  by  means  of  toothed  cylinders  revolving  toward 
each  other,  and  the  seeds  thus  separated  from  the  lint. 
A  slave  toulil  clean  by  hand  roller  only  five  or  six  pounds  of 


,|: 


Clkamnu  ConoN  Willi  Roller  gin 


National  Beginnings 


151 


Washington, 
XI,  3S8. 


cotton  in  a  day,  the  mill  turned  out  but  sixty-five  pounds ; 
while  the  new  machine,  when  run  by  horse  power,  ginned 
from  three  hundred  to  one  thousand  pounds  of  cotton  per 
day.  Hitherto,  the  native  short-fiber  cotton  had  sufficed 
for  the  plantation  industries  of  the  Southern  states,  but 
the  Northern  cotton  manufacturers  had  imported  the  long 
staple  variety  from  India,  Brazil,  and  the  West  Indies.  In 
1786  some  experiments  were  made  in  the  growing  of  West  Writings  of 
India  cotton  in  the  sea  islands  off  the  coast  of  South  Car-  George 
olina  and  Georgia,  and  ,jCKr*s' 

three  casks  of  this  cotton 
were  sent  to  London  and 
sold  for  45.  6</.  per  pound. 
Under  the  stimulus  of  a 
protective  duty  of  three 
cents  a  pound,  laid  in 
1790,  more  cotton  seed 
was  planted  and  the  crop 
of  1 791  amounted  to  nine 
thousand  bales.  The  cot- 
ton gin  rendered  practi- 
cable the  cleaning  of  the 

short-fiber  cotton  which  could  be  grown  in  the  hill  coun- 
try. Thousands  of  acres  were  soon  brought  under  cotton 
culture,  and  the  South  had  a  new  staple  crop  of  transcen- 
dent importance.  In  1792  the  Southern  states  sent  630 
bales  of  cotton  wool  to  England ;  the  year  following  the 
introduction  of  the  cotton  gin,  7000  bales  were  exported ; 
by  1800  the  amount  was  79,000  bales. 

Other  inventors  proposing  labor-saving  machinery  for 
agricultural  processes  secured  protection  under  the  patent 
law.  A  machine  for  the  threshing  of  grain  was  patented 
in  1799,  and  another  for  cutting  grain  in  1803.  A  plow 
with  a  mold  board  of  iron  cast  all  in  one  piece  was  patented 
in  1797.  But  the  farmers  were  «low  to  adopt  new-fangled 
notions,  and,  spite  of  the  high  cost  of  labor,  continued  to 
use  the  wooden  plow  clumsily  plated  with  wrought  iron. 
They  sowed  their  grain  by  hand,  cut  it  with  sickle  or 


Whitney's  Cotton  Gm 


\ 


1       91 


152      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


,rj-     ,   : 


14  Geo.  Ill, 
c.  71. 

21  Geo.  Ill, 
c.  37. 

White, 
Memoir  of 
Slater. 

Ch.  I,  II,  III, 
VI,  X. 


Wriffht, 
Indust.  Evol. 

of  r.s., 

Ch.  X. 


V- 


cradle  scythe,  and  threshed  it  out  with  flail  and  winnowing 
sieve. 

The  cloth  workers  showed  more  enterprise.  Strenuous 
efforts  were  being  made  to  procure  the  textile  machinery 
which  the  British  government  was  jealously  guarding  lest 
England  lose  her  recently  acquired  supremacy  in  cotton 
manufactures.  The  Beverley  Company,  in  a  petition  for 
aid  from  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  (1790), 
set  forth  the  difficulties  of  the  situation :  "  The  extraor- 
dinary price  of  machines  unknown  to  our  mechanics, 
intricate  and  difficult  in  their  construction,  without  any 
model  in  the  country,  and  only  to  be  effected  by  repeated 
trials,  and  long  attention ;  one  instance  among  many  of 
the  kind  is  a  carding  machine,  which  cost  the  proprietors 
$1100,  and  which  can  now  be  purchased  for  $200.  The 
extraordinary  loss  of  materials  in  the  instruction  of  their 
servants  and  workmen,  while  so  many  are  new,  and  the 
additional  losses  sustained  by  the  desertion  of  these,  when 
partly  informed,  and  by  the  increase  of  wages  to  prevent 
it,  in  consequence  of  the  competition  of  rival  manufactories. 
The  present  want  of  that  perfection  and  beauty  in  their 
goods,  which  long-established  manufactories  can  exhibit, 
from  the  skill  of  their  workmen,  but  principally  from  the 
use  of  machines  which  your  petitioners  have  as  yet  found 
too  expensive  for  them  to  procure."  A  few  spinning 
jennies  and  stockmg  looms  had  been  brought  over,  spite 
of  the  vigilance  of  the  British  customs  officials.  A  spin- 
ning frame  to  be  operated  by  a  crank  turned  by  hand  and 
carrying  thirty-two  spindles  was  set  up  in  Providence  in 
1788,  but  the  machine  was  too  heavy  to  run  by  hand, 
and  the  attempt  to  adapt  it  to  water  power  was  unsuccess- 
ful. Tench  Coxe,  a  Philadelphia  manufacturer,  had  con- 
tracted with  an  English  firm  for  a  full  set  of  Arkwright 
machinery,  but  the  contraband  models  were  seized  and 
confiscated  by  the  customs  officers.  However,  a  few 
skilled  artisans  from  Scotland  and  Ireland  had  succeeded 
in  evading  detection  and  emigrated  to  the  United  States. 
In  1790  one  Samuel  Slater,  who  had  been  employed  in  the 


t; 


STc)iKiN(;  Loom  W't.w  kr 


11 


i  I  h 


National  Bepnniugs 


153 


Arkwright  factory,  attracted  by  an  advertisement  of  the  Bagnaii, 

Philadelphia    Society  of  Artists  and  Manufacturers  for  L  Ch.  vi. 

a  machine  to  make  cotton  rollers,  determined  to  venture  White, 

his  fortunes  in  America.     On  arriving  he  entered  into  a  Memoir  of 

contract  with  Moses  Brown  of  Providence  to  build  and  cTi-iv 
operate  a  complete  spinning  mill,  with  carding,  roving, 
and  spinning  machines,  at  the  falls  of  the  Pawtucket  River! 


Spinninc  Room  in  Slater's  Mill 

Slater  had  not  dared  to  bring  with  him  any  models  of  the  Montgomery. 
Jbnghsh  machines.     He  was  obliged  to  draw  the  plans,  ^^'''^'.i"] 
direct  the  mechanics  who  fashioned  the  parts,  supervise  ?oton 
the  construction  of  the  factory  and  the  regulation  of  the  ^^anufac- 
water  power,  and,  finally,  instruct  the  workmen   how  to  '"'"' 
operate  the  machinery.    The  Pawtucket  mill  was  a  success  '""'"" 
irom  the  start,  and  thus  Samuel  Slater  inaugurated  a  new 
industry,  one  destined  to  absorb  much  of  the  capital  and 
entrepreneur  ability  of  New  Eneland.     The  water  frame 
was  patented  in  1791,  and  other  improvements  and  in- 
^  entions  followed  in  quick  succession.    American   manu- 


I 


154      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


BoUes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  Bk.  I, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Dewey, 
98-105. 

Brissot  de 
Warville, 

145-149. 
176-178. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
1780-1791, 
II,  2112- 
2141. 

Hamilton's 
Works, 
I-  275-325- 


facturers  were  so  enterprising,  and  American  laborers 
proved  so  intelligent,  that  the  original  disadvantages  were 
rapidly  overcome,  and  the  manufacture  of  cotton  cloth  of 
the  coarser  grades  was  soon  established  on  a  firm  basis. 

Regulation  of  the  Currency.  —  There  could  be  no  real 
industrial  prosperity  without  an  adequate  supply  of  money, 
and  the  attention  of  Congress  was  early  called  to  the  neces- 
sity of  providing  a  medium  of  exchange  that  should  have 
stable  and  uniform  value.  The  bills  of  credit,  thoroughly 
discredited  by  the  close  of  the  war,  had  dropped  out  of 
circulation,  and  the  supply  of  metal  money  was  insufficient 
to  effect  business  exchanges  even  at  the  trade  centers. 
The  specie  brought  in  during  the  war  was  of  varying  stand- 
ards and  denominations.  English  shillings  and  sovereigns, 
French  crowns,  Spanish  reals  and  pieces  of  eight,  passed 
current,  to  the  endless  confusion  of  traffic  ;  but  the  reviving 
trade  with  Havana  brought  in  considerable  silver,  and  the 
Spanish  dollar  was  the  coin  most  frequently  handled. 
This  came,  by  consequence,  to  be  the  unit  of  value  in  most 
general  use,  and  by  1790  had  superseded  the  English 
denominations. 

When  Hamilton,  the  financier  of  Washington's  cabinet, 
was  called  upon  to  submit  to  Congress  plans  for  a  new 
coinage  system,  he  suggested  the  dollar  as  the  most  con- 
venient money  unit,  since  it  was  familiar  and  popular. 
He  recommended  that  both  gold  and  silver  be  declared 
legal  tender  in  exchange,  since,  though  gold  was  the  more 
stable  metal,  the  supply  was  insufficient  to  provide  the 
needed  volume.  The  Coinage  Act  of  1792  established  a 
bimetallic  currency,  both  metals  being  coined  freely  at  the 
mint  in  the  ratio  of  fifteen  to  one.  The  silver  dollar  was 
to  contain  371.25  grains  of  pure  silver,  while  24.75  grains 
of  pure  gold  went  to  the  making  of  a  gold  dollar.  The 
latter  denomination  was  actually  coir.ed  only  in  multiples, 
i.e.  eagles,  half  eagles,  and  quarter  eagles.  For  fractional 
currency,  the  decimal  system,  suggested  by  Jefferson,  was 
adopted,  the  smaller  denominations  being  coined  in  copper. 

The  available  supply  of  metals,  gold,  silver,  and  copper, 


Xational  BcHtinuii:s 


155 


was  so  far  short  of  the  money  need  of  the  country  that  a 
paper  substitute  was  a  physical  necessity.  The  power  to 
"  emit  bills  of  credit  and  make  them  legal  tender  in  pay- 
ment of  debt  "  was  not  conceded  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment by  the  Constitution,  a  clause  conferring  such  author- 
ity having  failed  to  pass  in  the  Coristitutional  Convention 
by  a  vote  of  nine  states  to  two.  Bank  notes  issued  with 
sufficient  guarantee  of  redemption  might,  however,  be 
made  to  serve  the  purpose.  Hamilton  proposed  that  the 
Federal  government  meet  the  actual  currency  needs  of  the 
country  by  establishing  a  national  bank  authorized  to  issue 
a  credit  money  on  safe  business  principles.  The  sol- 
vency of  the  bank  was  to  be  maintained  by  the  subscrip- 
tion of  four  fifths  of  its  $10,000,000  capital  in  government 
bonds  paying  6  per  cent  interest,  and  redemption  of  the 
notes  was  limited  to  this  readily  convertible  stock.  The 
most  successful  model  for  such  a  credit  money  was  the 
Bank  of  England,  but  the  method  had  been  successfully 
tried  by  the  bank  of  North  America  in  Philadelphia,  the 
bank  of  New  York  in  that  city,  and  the  Massachusetts 
bank  of  Boston.  The  business  advantages  of  a  national  as 
compared  with  a  state  bank  were  emphasized  in  Hamilton's 
report.  The  sale  of  bonds  would  afford  a  safe  investment 
for  idle  capital,  the  property  of  women,  minors,  etc.,  the 
country  over ;  out  of  the  accumulation  of  small  capitals, 
the  bank  could  make  loans  to  business  men,  thus  enabling 
them  to  set  upon  enterprises  otherwise  impossible;  the 
notes  might  not,  as  the  Constitution  was  then  interpreted, 
be  given  legal  tender  value,  but  being  redeemable  on  dt  ■ 
mand  and  receivable  for  taxes  at  par,  they  would  serve 
all  the  purposes  of  specie.  The  national  bank  issue  would 
be  a  welcome  addition  to  the  volume  of  the  currency  and 
would,  Hamilton  believed,  ultimately  supersede  private 
bank  issues,  since  the  redemption  of  the  notes  was  assured 
by  government  bonds,  and  since  they  would  pass  current 
in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  facilitate  exchange  between 
distant  sections. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  chartered  in  1791. 


Bolles, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  Bk.  I. 
Ch.  VII. 

Hamilton's 
Works,  III, 
388-443. 

Annals  of 
Congress, 
1789-1791, 
II,  2082- 


\. 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Conant, 
Modem 
Banks 
of  Issue, 
334-340. 


Holdsworth, 
First 
National 
Banlc. 


Turner, 
Rise  of  the 
New  West. 


The  stock  was  over-subscribed  by  four  thousand  shares 
within  two  hours  after  the  opening  of  the  books,  and  the 
bank  was  opened  for  business  in  December  of  that  year 
The  results  were  all  that  Hamilton  had  anticipated.    The 
special  demand  for  government  bonds  brought  these  certifi- 
cates up  to  par  and  placed  the  credit  of  the  United  States 
on  an  assured  basis.    The  national  bank  notes,  being  read- 
ily convertible,  were  everywhere  received  as  equivalent 
to  specie,  and  the  issues  of  the  more  dubious  state  banks 
were  speedily  discredited.    The  success  of  this  great  finan- 
cial enterprise  once  guaranteed,  the  business  interests  of 
the  country  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  central  govern- 
ment, for  every  man  who  held  United  States  bonds  or 
dealt  m  national  bank  notes  was  concerned  to  maintain 
the  solvency  of  the  Federal  Treasury.    The  management 
of  the  bank  was  conservative  and  wise,  and  as  a  business 
enterprise  it  was  eminently  successful,  paying  8  p„T  cent 
dividends  from  the  start.    Nevertheless,  when,  in  1810 
and  181 1,  the  proposition  to  recharter  the  National  Bank 
came  before  Congress,  there  was  general  opposition  on 
the  part  of  the  Democrats,  who  held  that  the  Federal 
gov-ernment  had  no  constitutional  authority  to  establish 
such  an  institution.    The  partisans  of  the  state  banks 
m -reover,  denounced  the  national  bank  as  un-American! 
and  scorned  the  "  British  gold  "  that  had  been  attracted 
to  this  investment.    Gallatin,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
us.;d  all  his  influence  in  behalf  of  the  bank,  declaring  that 
neii  her  the  government  nor  the  people  could  easily  dispense 
wit.,  this  important  financial  agent;    but  in  vain.    The 
bill  to  recharter  failed  by  a  narrow  majority.    In  the  House 
the  vote  stood  sixty-five  to  sixty-four;   in  the  Senate  it 
was  defeated  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  \'ice-President. 

The  Westward  Movement 

The  first  decade  of  our  national  history  witnessed  a 
great  wave  of  migration  into  the  trans-AUeghany  territory. 
1  he  era  of  the  trapper  and  the  trader,  of  the  "  long  hunter  " 


National  Beginnings  157 

and  the  self-appointed  Indian  fighter,  had  passed.    The 
expenmental  stage  was  at  an  end,  and  now  that  some 
measure  of  peace  and  security  was  attained,  men  of  wealth 
and  breedmg  began  to  move  into  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
takmg  their  families  and  household  goods,  together  with 
slaves  and  capital  sufficient  to  exploit  the  natural  resources 
0    the  country.     The  pioneer  farmer  gave  way  to  the 
planter,  and  tobacco  culture  and  stock  raising  on  a  large 
scale   superseded    the  primitive   industries   of   the   back 
woods.     Many  soldiers  of  the  disbanded  army,  finding 
It  impossible  to  regain  industrial  foothold  in  the  Atlantic 
states  came  into  the  newly  acquired  territory  to  take  up 
their  bounty  lands  and  make  a  fresh  start  in  li^e  •  and 
emigrants   from    Ireland,    Great   Britain,    and    Germany 
crossed  the  sea  in  ever  increasing  numbers,  seeking  amon" 
the  people  that  had  broken  free  from  Old  World  trammels 
opportunity   to   earn   a   living   as   independent   farmers 
bpeculators,   too,   crossed  the  mountains,   bearing  titles 
more  or  less  valid  to  vast  tracts  of  virgin  forest,  hoping 
to  reap  fortunes  from  the  inevitable  rise  in  price     Wash- 
ington had  protested  against  the  "  rage  for  speculating 
m  and  forestalling  of  land  on  the  No.West  of  the  Ohio  " 
asserting  that  "  scarce  a  valuable  spot,  within  any  tolerable 
distance  of  it,  is  left  without  a  claimant.    Men  in  these 
times  talk  with  as  much  facility  of  fifty,  an  hundred,  and 
even  500,000  acres,  as  a  gentleman  formerly  would  do  of 
1000.       He  urged  that  Congress  should  ''  fix  such  a  price 
upon  the  lands  .  .  .-  as  would  not  be  too  exorbitant  and 
burthensome  for  real  occupiers;   but  high  enough  to  dis- 
courage monopolizers." 

Tlie  Ordinance  of  1787.  -  The  settlement  of  the  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  River  was  undertaken  under  national 
auspices,  since  the  difficulties  were  too  great  to  be  mastered 
by  individual  enterprise.  The  Northwest  Territory  was 
occupied  by  powerful  Indian  tribes  resentful  of  invasion 
and  ever  ready  to  take  the  warpath,  while  British  garrisons 

an     tv      '^"^  ^°'^'  ""  ^^^^  Erie,  -Detroit,  Sandusky, 
and  Miami, -pending  the  adjudication  of  war  claims 


Roosevelt, 
III,  Ch.  I, 
VI,  VIII. 

Winsor, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  XIII, 
XIV,  XVIII. 

McMaster, 
III,  Ch. 
XVI. 

Winter- 
botliam. 
Hist.  View 
of  the  U.S., 
Ill,  281-339. 

Franklin's 
Works,  III, 
398-409. 

Writings  of 
George 
Washington. 
X,  416-419. 

Michaux, 
Travels, 
222-250, 
276-282. 


Roosevelt, 
III,  Ch.  VI. 


Winsor, 

Westward 

Movement, 

Ch.  XIV. 

Sato, 

282-298. 


r  i 


I  P- 


4  !• 


Hinsdale, 
Old  North- 
west, 
Ch.  XIV, 
XV,  XVIII, 
XIX. 


McLaughlin, 
Ch.  VII,- 
VIII. 


Donaldson, 

Public 

Domain, 

Ch.  VI. 

Webster, 

Political 

Essays, 

485-500. 


Sato, 
335-378. 


Donaldson, 
Ch.  V. 


1 58      Indus  trial  History  of  the  United  States 

Jurisdiction  of  the  territory  was  disputed  by  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts, 
each  of  which  claimed  to  have  inherited  some  portion  from 
the  original  British  grants.  The  lands  were  unsurveyed 
and  the  form  of  government  undetermined,  and  the  soldiers 
who  had  received  grants  in  this  wilderness  thought  them 
about  as  valuable  as  "  quarter  sections  of  the  moon." 

The  bringing  order  out  of  this  chaos  was  the  last  work 
of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.  The  several  states 
were  induced  to  cede  their  unsubstantial  claims  to  the 
central  government;  United  States  troops  were  sent  to 
hold  the  Indians  in  check,  and  peace  was  finally  concluded 
with  the  tribes  along  the  Scioto  (1784).  A  systematic 
survey  of  the  land  was  undertaken  in  the  following  year, 
and  the  country  was  mapped  out  by  ranges  into  town- 
ships, sections,  and  quarter  sections.  The  section,  one 
mile  square,  and  containing  six  hundred  and  forty  acres, 
became  the  typical  farm.  The  land  was  offered  to  in- 
dividual bidders  by  auction  sale  at  a  minimum  price  of 
$1  per  acre,  plus  a  small  charge  to  cover  the  actual  cost  of 
survey.  In  1 787  a  group  of  New  England  men,  two  hundred 
and  eighty-five  of  them  officers  of  the  Continental  army, 
petitioned  Congress  to  determine  the  conditions  of  settle- 
ment in  that  part  of  the  Northwest  where  their  bounty 
lands  were  to  be  located.  Their  representative,  Dr. 
Manasseh  Cutler,  submitted  the  conditions  that  the  would- 
be  settlers  held  essential :  political  and  civil  liberty, 
religious  toleration,  and  the  prohibition  of  slavery.  The 
Ordinance  of  1787  guaranteed  representative  government 
to  the  people  who  should  inhabit  the  Northwest  Territory, 
and  provided  for  the  ultimate  formation  therein  of  from 
three  to  five  states  that  should  be  coordinate  under  the 
Constitution  with  the  original  thirteen.  Thus  was  it 
settled  for  all  time  that  the  new  colonies  weiu  not  to  be 
exploited  for  the  benefit  of  the  parent  states,  but  were  to 
become  autonomous  and  codrdinate  commonwealths. 
Schools  and  the  hi>(her  education  were  to  be  maintained 
by  the  proceeds  of  land  sales,  one  section  in  every  town- 


National  Beginnings 


159 


,    't-M^^   k    r    o 


Irt 

1 

-""- 

STATK  CLAIMS 

1 

1 

TO 

i 

WESTERN  LAND8 

■ 

•C«li  or  MIIK 

"\f,.if.       *»        ito        *0 

McMaster, 
III,  s  2 1-5  28. 


is 


R<x3scvelt, 
III.  IS- 


Imlay, 
I4J-I44. 


160      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

ship  being  reserved  for  its  public  school.  By  far  the  most 
important  clause  in  this  fundamental  compact  between 
the  original  states  and  the  settlers  of  the  territory  was  the 
stipulation  that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
exc  pt  for  crime,  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  region. 
Persons  already  held  as  slaves  were  not  emancipated,  and 
fugitive  slaves  taking  refuge  in  the  territory  were  to  be 
restored  to  their  masters ;  but  slavery  as  a  labor  system 
was  forever  debarred. 

Immediately  after  the  passage  of  the  Ordinance,  the 
Ohio  Company  purchased  one  million  five  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum  River  and, 
in  New  England  fashion,  founded  a  town.  Marietta,  under 
the  guns  of  fort  Harmar.  In  the  same  year  the  Miami 
Company,  under  direction  of  J.  C.  Symmes,  purchased 
one  million  acres  farther  down  the  Ohio,  and  there,  between 
the  Little  and  Great  Miami  rivers,  Cincinnati  was  built. 
Symmes's  settlers  were  also  soldiers,  but  they  came  from 
the  Middle  states.  During  the  latter  half  of  1787  more 
than  nine  hundred  boats  floated  down  the  Ohio,  carrying 
eighteen  thousand  men,  women,  and  children,  and  twelve 
thousand  horses,  sheep,  and  cattle,  and  six  hundred  and 
fifty  wagons.  The  westward  journey  was  no  longer 
difficult,  dangerous,  or  even  expiensive.  An  experienced 
pioneer  thus  describes  the  trip  as  it  might  be  made  in  i7(),s. 

"  Travellers  or  emigrants  take  different  methods  of 
transporting  their  baggage,  goods,  or  furniture,  from  the 
places  they  may  l)e  at  to  the  Ohio,  according  to  circum- 
stances, or  their  object  in  coming  to  the  country.  For 
instance,  if  a  man  is  travelling  only  for  curiosity,  or  has 
no  family  or  goods  to  remove,  his  best  way  would  be  to 
purchase  horses,  and  take  his  route  through  the  Wilderness ; 
but  provided  he  has  a  family,  or  goods  of  any  sort  to  re- 
move, his  best  way,  then,  would  be  to  purchase  a  waggon 
and  team  of  horses  to  carry  his  property  to  Redstone  0I<1 
Fort  or  to  Pittsburg,  according  as  he  may  come  from  the 
northern  or  Htnithern  State=-,  A  jtcmkI  waggon  will  cost: 
at  Philadelphia,  about  £10  (I  shall  reckon  everything  in 


National  Beginnings 


i6i 


sterling  money  for  your  greater  convenience),  and  the 
horses  about  £12  each;  they  would  cost  something  more 
both  at  Baltimore  and  Alexandria.  The  waggon  may  be 
covered  with  canvas,  and,  if  it  is  the  choice  of  the  people, 
they  may  sleep  in  it  at  nights  with  the  greatest  safety! 
But  if  they  should  dislike  that,  there  are  inns  of  accommo- 


dation the  whole  distance  on  the  different  roads.  To  allow 
the  horses  a  plenty  of  hay  and  corn  would  cost  about  \s. 
p<r  diem,  each  horse ;  supposing  you  purchase  your  forage 
in  the  most  economical  manner,  t.r.  of  the  farmers,  as  you 
pass  along,  from  time  to  time  as  ycu  may  want  it,  and 
|"arry  it  in  your  waggon  ;  and  not  of  inn-keepers,  who  must 
have  their  profits.  The  provisions  for  the  familv  I  would 
purchase  in  the  same  manner ;  and  by  having  two  or  three 
tamp  kettles,  and  stopping  every  evening  when  the  weather 


1 62      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


is  fine  upon  the  brink  of  some  rivule'.  P'ld  by  kindling  a 
fire  they  may  soon  dress  their  food,  luei  t  is  no  impedi- 
ment to  these  kind  of  things,  it  is  common,  and  may  be 
done  with  the  greatest  security ;  and  I  would  recommend 
all  persons  who  wish  to  avoid  expence,  as  much  as  possible 
to  adopt  this  plan.  True,  the  charges  at  inns  on  those 
roads  are  remarkably  reasonable,  but  I  have  mentioned 
those  particulars  as  there  are  many  unfortunate  people  in 
the  worid,  to  whom  the  saving  of  every  shilling  is  an  object ; 
and  as  this  manner  of  journeying  is  so  far  from  being  dis- 
agreeable, that  in  a  fine  season,  it  is  extremely  pleasant." 
X  ..„v,  Once  arrived  at  Pittsburg  or  Wheeling,  it  was  easy  to  build 

Recollections  ^  flatboat  and  float  down  to  the  intended  location.    After 
of  the  Last      ^^^^  ^^  qj^^  ^^  ^^^  popular  route  — the  great  artery 

through  which  the  lifeblood  of  the  nation  was  driven  into 
the  new  West.  In  1792  there  were  twenty-five  hundred 
people  on  the  Ohio  Company  lands,  and  two  thousand 
in  the  Symmes  setUement.  By  1800  there  were  thirteen 
hundred  settlers  in  the  Connecticut  Reserve  on  Lake  Erie, 
and  the  population  of  Ohio  territory  amounted  to  fifty-five 
thousand  souls. 

South  of  the  Ohio.  —  Into  the  lands  south  of  the  Ohio 
River  settlers  were  free  to  bring  their  slaves.  Tobacco, 
hemp,  and  cotton  could  be  grown  to  advantage  by  slave 
gang-  ^  nd  the  climate  was  too  warm  to  make  field  labor 
poi  for  the  white  race.    When  Kentucky  was  ad- 

mittea  to  the  Union  in  1792,  her  constitution  contain«l  no 
restrictions  on  slavery.  When  the  Southwest  Territory 
was  organized  in  1790,  the  Ordinance  embodied  all  the 
provisions  of  the  Northwest  Ordinance  except  the  pro- 
hibition of  slavery,  and  North  Carolina  had  made  her  ces- 
sion conditional  on  the  free  importation  of  slaves  into  this 
territory.  When  the  Mississippi  territory  was  acquired 
by  the  United  States  and  its  territorial  government  was 
established  in  1798,  all  the  articles  of  the  Ordinance  of  17S7 
were  adopted  "  excepting  and  excluding  "  this  much-de- 
bated restriction. 
South  of  the  Tennessee  the  conditions  of    settlement 


Flint, 


"^en  Years, 

-  <   16. 


Hinsdale, 
Old  North- 
west, 
Ch.XIX. 


National  Beginnings 


163 


III! 

I  'I 


ill 


M 


■111 


Roosevelt, 
IV,  186-192. 

Haskias, 
The  Yazoo 
Land  Com- 
panies. 

Am.  State 
Papers, 
Public  Lands, 
II,  877-880. 
D  wight. 

I,  2l8-iJ2. 

Lambert, 
20S-1". 


Donaldson, 
Ch.  Vlll. 


Sato, 
385-40^'- 


164      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

differed  from  those  that  obtained  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  north 
or  south.    Georgia  had  withheld  this  territory  from  the 
national  jurisdiction  for  a  full  decade  a  ter  the  other 
claimant  states  had  ceded  their  Western  lands^    In  the 
interval  several  speculative  land  companies  had  been  char- 
tered and  allowed  to  establish  title  to  vast  tracts.    The 
ands  were  sold  to  the  highest  bidders  without  regard  to 
he  character  of  the  settlements  that  might  be  planted^ 
The  purchasers  sent  their  overseers  into  the^^^t'T  vn^^ 
gangs  of  negro  slaves  to  dear  the  forests  and  plant  cotton 
fn  the  fertile  upland  valleys.    Cotton,  like  tobacco  .^^^ 
rke   is  a  croo  that  requires  a  large  amount  of  unskil  ed 
2r  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.     It  can  be  cultivated 
most  economically  in  extensive  tracts  by  gangs  of  cheap 
kborers.    Since  the  industrial  advantage  rested  with  the 
grea  te^  ates,  the  man  without  capital  was  forced  down  mto 
f^e  pine  bar'rens  or  back  into  the  hills  where  the  day  01 
was  unsuited  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton.    Little  else 
remained  available  when  the  United  States  land  offices 

were  finally  established.  , ,.     ,        •     „,,= 

The  Sale  of  Public  Lands.  -The  public  domam  was 
originally  regarded  as  an  important  --^urce  of  revenue 
tiat  would  be  adequate  to  the  extinction  of  the  nationa 
de'  I     One  dollar  per  acre  was,  however,  hardly  sufficient 
to  cover  the  costs  of  survey  and  registration,  and,  since 
wholesale  purchasers  got  considerable  ,r«lf  ti°ns  on  this 
nrice  the  actual  income  on  account  of  land  sales  fdl  short 
Texpectations.    In  1796  the  price  to  individual  -ttl-s 
was  raised  to  $2  per  acre,  but  payments  m^ght  be  made 
by  installment.    To  secure  his  claim,  a  man  must  deposit 
one  twentieth  of  the  purchase  price,  m  addition  to  the 
costs  of  survey,  registration  ^^e,  etc.    amounting  to  $11 , 
one  fourth  of  the  total  price  must  be  paid  within  forty 
days,  one  half  within  two  years,  three  fourths  withm  three 
years,  and  the  whole  sum  within  four  years  after  entering 
the  claim.    Six  hundred  and  forty  acres  might  thu.  be 
taken  up  with  cash  to  the  amount  of  $^^^i.      Ready 
money  was  scarce,  but  it  was  not  impossible  to  secure 


National  Beginnings 


165 


this  sum  at  the  rate  of  wages  then  prevaUing,  and  many 
men  took  out  land  patents  with  no  provision  for  meeting 
later  installments  other  than  the  proceeds  of  the  crops 
yet  to  be  sown.    Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances 
this  was  a  safe  venture ;  but  if  the  land  failed  to  yield  a 
paying  crop,  or  if  it  lay  remote  from  a  market,  the  farmer 
could  not  meet  his  installments  as  they  fell  due  and  be- 
came  hopelessly  involved  in  debt.     Under   the  law  of 
1800,  his  farm  reverted  to  the  government  and  was  resold, 
but  since  he  had  probably  put  considerable  labor  and  some 
money  into  the  land,  he  yielded  title  only  under  protest. 
Congress  was  frequently  petitioned  to  pass  relief  acts  for 
individuals  or  for  whole  districts,  extending  the  time  within 
which  the  installments  might  be  paid.    Finally  (1821) 
the  credit  feature  of  the  Act  of  1800  was  repealed,  and  the 
price  of  agricultural  lands  was  fixed  at  $1.25  per  acre. 
All  the  advantages  of  the  credit  system  were,  however, 
secured  to  bona  fide  settlers  by  the  preemption  acts.    The 
first  act  of  this  nature  was  passed  in  1801  in  behalf  of  the 
settlers  on  the  Miami  Company's  lands.    Symmes  had 
failed  to  fulfill  the  terms  of  his  contract  and  the  title  was 
forfeited.    To  prevent  injustice  to  the  men  who  had  taken 
up  land  within  the  tract,  Congress  provided  that  actual 
settlers  should  have  first  rights  in  the  resale  and  at  a  non- 
competitive price.    Other  preemption  acts  were  passed 
•for  other  special  cases  until,  in  1830,  a  general  law  was 
enacted,  which,  being  renewed  from  year  to  year,  ultimately 
established  the  "squatter's  right."    Even  more  serious 
difficulty  arose  where  the  land  had  been  sold  to  speculators. 
Irresponsible  adventurers  sometimes  secured  large  tracts 
on  credit,  and  at  a  wholesale  price,  five  or  ten  or  twenty- 
five  cents  per  acre,  relying  upon  receipts  from  sales  to  meet 
the  annual   installments  due   the  government.    In   the 
Genesee  country,  whence  wheat  might  be  shipped  to  eastern 
markets,  this  was  a  safe  venture,  but  the  farmers  of  the 
Ohio  Valley  were  fairly  choked  with  their  own  produce 
and  had  much  more  trouble  in  meeting  money  obliga- 
tions. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Public  Lands, 
I,  75.  log, 
112,  127-131, 
909-910;  II, 
439-441- 


James  Flint, 
Letters  from 
America, 
Letter  XII, 
175-181. 


Martineati, 
I.  332-337- 


Weld. 

n,  325-338. 


ii !  ',' 


fii 


Semple, 
Ch.  V. 
Michaux, 
Travels  to 
the  West- 
ward of  the 
Alleghany 
Mts., 
132-187- 


Imlay.  51, 
100-107. 


Roosevelt, 
I,  ii6,  122. 


166      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Need  of  Transportation  Facilities.  —  The  pioneer  farmer 
found  no  difficulty  in  supplying  his  family  with  the  necessi- 
ties of  life,  —  food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  —  but  to  provide 
means  of  purchasing  the  articles  that  could  not  be  grown 
or  manufactured  on  the  place,  he  must  dispose  of  his 
surplus  crops.     Philadelphia  was  the  market  to  which  the 
settlers  in  the  Ohio  Valley  looked  for  the  supplies  of  salt 
and  iron,  firearms  and  gunpowder,  without  which  they 
could  not  support  life.     The  goods  came  by  pack  horse 
or  wagon  over  the  Lancaster  turnpike  and  Forbes  Road 
to  Pittsburg  and  thence  down  the  river  to  Limestone  or 
Louisville  or  beyond.     During  the  spring  floods  there  was 
little  hazard  in  floating  even  heavily  loaded  scows  over 
the  Falls.     The  return  voyage  was  more  difficult.     A  crew 
of  six  men  could  pilot  a  vessel  of  sixty  tons  burden  down- 
stream, but  twenty  were  necessary  to  propel  a  boat  of  five 
tons  capacity  by  sail  or  oar  up  current.     At  Louisville 
the  cargo  must  be  unloaded  and  carried  round  the  Falls. 
The  costs  of  the  return  voyage  were  so  great  that  it  was 
not  often  attempted.     Traders  usually  broke  up  the  scow 
into  planks  and  sold  thtm  as  lumber,  preferring  to  make 
the  eastward  journey  uvcrland.     The  products    that  the 
Western  farmers  could  send  to  the  seaboard  —  grain,  cattle 
and  hides,  hemp  and  U)bacco  —  were  so  bulky  that  the 
transportation  charges  ate  up  all  the  profits,  and  they 
exchanged  for  Eastern  manufactures  in  ruinous  dispro- . 
portion.     A  cow  and  her  calf  were  given  for  a  bushel  of 
salt,  while  a  suit  of  "  store  clothes  "  cost  as  much  as  a  farm. 
The  value  of  most  manufactured  commodities  was  en- 
hanced in  the  American  markets  by  the  protective  duties 
that  brought  the  price  of  foreign  goods  up  to  the  domestic 
cost  of  production. 

More  promising  outlets  for  Western  farm  products  lay 
by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Mon- 
treal and  Quebec,  and  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  to  Xatchtv. 
and  New  Orleans.  Either  way  the  advantages  of  trans- 
portation were  with  the  outgoing  freight.  From  these 
British  and  Spanish  ports  the  goods  might  be  shipped  to 


i.  n 


■:  'M 


I 


"■  ! 


National  Beginnings 


167 


Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  or  Charleston,  or  directly 
to  European  markets.  As  trade  developed,  boats  were 
built  at  Pittsburg,  Marietta,  and  Louisville,  and  sent  directly 
to  the  West  Indies,  where  cargoes  of  grain  and  salt  meat 
were  exchanged  for  rum  and  silver.  Return  traffic,  in 
case  the  goods  were  bulky,  or  could  transport  themselves, 
as  cattle,  horses,  and  slaves,  followed  the  buffalo  trails  or 
the  pioneer  roads  back  to  the  settlements.  Since  both  the 
British  and  the  Spanish  frontiers  offered  abundant  op- 
portunities for  smuggling,  the  profits  of  this  foreign  trade 
were  far  greater  than  could  be  derived  from  commerce 
with  the  Eastern  markets.  There  developed,  in  conse- 
quence, a  marked  antagonism  of  interest  between  the  agri- 
cultural communities  beyond  the  mountains  and  th'  ,  nu- 
facturing  sections  of  the  seaboard. 

The  Cumberland  Road.  —  No  statesman  was  more 
interested  in  the  trans-Alleghany  country,  or  saw  more 
clearly  the  necessity  for  adequate  transportation  facilities, 
than  President  Washington.  As  a  young  sur\'eyor  he 
had  blazed  the  trail  across  the  divide  between  the  Potomac 
and  the  Monongahela,  named,  from  his  Indian  guide, 
Nemacolin's  path,  and  he  was  in  command  of  the  Virginia 
troops  that  widened  the  trail  into  the  road  that  was  trav- 
ersed by  Braddock's  army.  Und'^r  the  royal  proclama- 
tion of  1763,  Washington  had  been  awarded  bounty  lands 
on  the  Ohio  River,  and  his  holdings  between  the  Great 
and  Little  Kanawha  amounted  to  thirty  thousand  acres. 
At  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  ex-commander- 
in-chief  made  a  journey  over  the  mountains  to  look  after 
this  property.  On  his  return  he  addressed  a  letter  to 
Benjamin  Harrison,  Governor  of  Virignia,  urging  that  the 
state  undertake  the  building  of  a  wagon  road  across  the 
mountains  and  so  establish  commercial  connections  with 
her  trans-Alleghany  territorj-.  "  The  Western  settlers  (I 
speak  now  from  my  own  observation)  stand  as  it  were 
"Pon  a  pivot.  The  touch  of  a  feather  would  turn  them 
any  way.  They  have  looked  down  the  Mississippi  until 
the  Spaniards,  very  impoliticly  I  think  for  themselves, 


Mkhaux-, 

MS. 

250-266. 


Hulbert. 
Washing- 
ton's Road, 
Ch.  I.  IV,  V, 
VI. 

Hulbert, 

Cumberland 

Road. 


Writings  of 

George 

Washington, 

X,  324-325, 
35&-3S2, 
361-366 ; 

XI,  32,  IQS- 
199. 


Writings  of 
George 
Washington, 
X,  408-409. 


I 


r 


I 


Weld, 
I.  53-79- 


1 68      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

threw  diflSciilties  in  their  way ;  and  they  looked  that  way 
for  no  other  reason,  than  because  they  could  glide  gently 
down  the  stream;  without  considering,  perhaps,  the 
difficulties  of  the  voyage  back  again,  and  the  time  necessary 
to  perform  it  in ;  and  because  they  have  no  other  means 
of  coming  to  us  but  by  long  land  transportations,  and  un- 
improved roads.  These  causes  have  hitherto  checked  the 
industry  of  the  present  settlers;  for  except  the  demand 
for  provisions,  occasioned  by  the  increase  of  population, 
and  a  little  flour,  which  the  necessities  of  the  Spaniards 
compel  them  to  buy,  they  have  no  incitements  to  labor. 
But  smooth  the  road  and  make  easy  the  way  for  them, 
and  then  see  what  an  influx  of  articles  will  be  poured  upon 
us ;  how  amazingly  our  exports  will  be  increased  by  them, 
and  how  amply  we  shall  be  compensated  for  any  trouble 
and  expense  we  may  encounter  to  effect  it,  .  .  .  It  wants 
only  a  beginning.  The  western  inhabitants  would  do 
their  part  toward  its  execution.  Weak  as  they  are,  they 
would  meet  us  at  least  halfway,  rather  than  be  driven 
into  the  arms  of,  or  be  dependent  upon,  foreigners." 

Commissioners  were  later  appointed  by  Maryland  and 
Virginia  to  consider  means  of  improving  the  navigation 
of  the  Potomac  and  conferences  were  held  in  Alexandria 
(1785),  AnnapoUs  (1786),  and  Philadelphia  (1787),  but 
not  till  trade  with  the  back  country  began  to  assume  pro- 
portions that  interested  eastern  merchants,  was  effective 
action  taken.  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and 
the  new  national  capital  were  situated  on  waterways 
that  led  far  into  the  interior :  but  their  citizens  saw  that 
the  full  advantage  of  this  oppc.  tunity  would  not  be  realized 
until  goods  could  be  freighted  across  the  mountains.  In 
1802  Congress  voted  to  appropriate  one  twentieth  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale  of  Ohio  lands  to  the  making  of  "  public 
roads  leading  from  the  navigable  waters  emptying  into 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Ohio  "  and  on  through  the  Northwest 
Territory,  as  might  prove  serviceable.  The  Cumberland 
Road,  or  the  National  Turnpike,  as  it  was  known  in 
its  westward  extension,  diverged  from  Braddock's  Road 


National  Beginnings 


169 


at  Union  town,  Pennsylvania,  crossed  the  Monongahela 
River  at  Redstone  Old  Fort  and  the  Ohio  at  Wheeling. 
The  surveyors  followed  a  pioneer  route,  Zane's  trace,  to 
Zanesville,  but  thereafter  struck  directly  west  through  Co- 
lumbus and  Indianapolis  to  Vandalia,  by  1838.  The  costs 
of  transportation  by  wagon  road  are  always  higher  than  by 
water  because  of  the  wear  and  tear  on  roadbed,  vehicle,  and 
draught  horses.  Hence  the  bulk  of  traffic  abandoned  the 
pike  wherever  river  transportation  was  available,  e.g.  at 
Brownsville  on  the  Monongahela  and  at  Wheeling  on  the 
Ohio;  but  the  interior  sections  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois  were  op^  d  up  to  settlement  and  trade  in  much 
the  way  Washing  ^on  had  foreseen. 

Gallatin's  Plan.  —  Impressed  by  the  necessity  of  open- 
ing up  the  interior,  and  convinced  that  private  enterprise 
was  inadequate  to  the  task,  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  submitted  to  Congress  (1808)  a  compre- 
hensive scheme  of  internal  improvements  which  he  pro- 
.  osed  should  be  undertaken  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the 
national  government.  The  succession  of  peninsulas  jutting 
out  into  the  Atlantic  from  Cape  Cod  to  Cape  Hatteras 
interrupted  coastwise  navigation  and  offered  vexing  ob- 
stacles to  commerce.  They  should  be  cut  by  a  series  of 
canals  large  enough  for  ocean  vessels.  The  dangerous  out- 
side passage  from  Boston  to  New  York  could  be  avoided 
by  a  canal  across  the  narrow  neck  of  land  between  Cape 
Cod  Bay  and  Buzzards  Bay.  Water  communication  be- 
tween Delaware  and  Chesapeake  bays  would  do  away  with 
a  long  roundabout  voyage,  and  a  canal  between  Norfolk 
and  Elizabeth  City,  Virginia,  would  facilitate  commerce 
between  the  Chesapeake  and  Albemarle  Sound.  The  last 
two  enterprises  were  already  undertaken  by  private  com- 
panies, but  the  work  should  be  carried  to  completion  by 
national  appropriation.  Other  local  improvements,  such 
as  the  canalizing  of  the  Merrimac  River,  the  Middlesex 
Canal  connecting  Boston  with  Lowell,  the  Schuylkill  and 
Delaware,  the  Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna  canals,  were 
projects  worthy  of  national  aid.     Canal  communication 


McMaster, 
III,  463-464. 


Writings  of 

George 

Washington, 

X,  375-377. 
402-414,  428, 
475-476 ; 

XI,  42,  163, 
359-360. 

Am.  State 
Papers, 
Miscella- 
neous, 
I,  724-921. 

Rept.  Inland 

Waterways 

Commission, 

IQ08, 

534-581. 


II 


1 70      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Moore  and 
Jones, 
Travelers' 
Dictionary. 


Roosevelt, 
IV,  Ch.  VI, 
VII. 

Scmplc, 
Ch.  VI. 


Sato, 
2g8-,u6. 


H.-.irr.rr, 

Louisiana 

Purchase. 


should  be  established  from  the  Hudson  River  to  Lake 
Champlain  and  to  Lake  Ontario,  and  between  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Lak^  Pontchartrain  at  New  Orleans.  The  series 
of  turnpikes  connecting  Boston  with  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  and  Washington  should  be  improved 
and  extended  so  that  a  great  post  road  running  from  Maine 
to  Georgia  might  insure  transportation  between  the  prin- 
cipal seaports. 

Between  the  seaboard  and  the  Western  states  communi- 
cation should  be  furthered  by  the  impro\-ement  of  the 
Santee,  James,  Potomac,  and  Susquehanna  rivers,  and  by 
the  building  of  post  roads  to  connect  the  headwaters  of 
navigation  on  the  eastward  flowing  streams  with  the  corre- 
sponding western  rivers  —  the  Tennessee,  Kanawha,  Mo- 
nongahela,  and  Allegheny.  Water  transportation  in  the 
Mississippi  VaUey  should  be  bettered  by  canals  around  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Niagara  rivers.  The  pioneer 
roads  radiating  from  Pittsburg  to  Detroit,  St.  Louis,  and 
New  Orleans  must  be  taken  over  by  the  national  govern- 
ment, since  local  resources  were  insufficient  to  their  satis- 
factory completion. 

Gallatin's  scheme  of  internal  improvements  was  frus- 
trated by  preoccupation  in  the  war  vith  England,  but  the 
most  important  of  his  projects  were  later  accomplished. 

The  Louisiana  Purchase.  —  Beyond  the  Mississippi  lay 
a  vast  unknown  territory,  claimed  by  France  and  Spain 
and  France  in  turn,  but  tenanted  only  by  Indian  tribes. 
The  settlements  at  St.  Louis  and  St.  Charles  were  mere 
agricultural  villages  inhabited  l)y  the  French  refugees 
from  Vincennes  and  Kaskaskia  and  by  the  trappers  and 
voyageura  employed  by  Chouteau's  fur  trading  company. 
The  region  to  the  north  and  west  was  terra  itieo^nilii. 
Indian  traders  had  pushed  up  the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony  and  along  the  Missouri  to  the  Mandan  vil- 
lages ;  a  few  adventurous  Americans  had  visited  the  trans- 
Mis!«issippi  country  and  learned  something  of  its  infmite 
possibilities ;  Daniel  Boone,  driven  from  Kentucky  by  the 
inroads  of  civilization,  was  trapping  and  farming  along  the 


•t^5s%W.t4^^ 


National  Beginnings 


i;i 


1 


lower  Missouri ;  Philip  Nolan  was  corralling  wild  horses 
on  the  plains  threaded  by  the  Brazos  River ;  but  as  yet 
the  land  was  not  coveted  for  its  own  sake.  The  chief 
significance  to  the  frontier  settlers  of  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  lay  in  the  danger  that  the  commandants 
stationed  at  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans  might  interfere 
with  their  traffic  down  the  river.  In  1801  the  coveted 
right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans  was  actually  suspended, 
and  the  Westerners  clamored  for  aid,  lest  the  trade  so  es- 
sential to  the  prosperity  of  the  American  settlements  be 
strangled  by  the  jealous  Spaniards.  When  Louisiana 
territory  was  ceded  to  Napoleon  Bonaparte  (1801)  and 
the  ambitious  First  Consul  proposed  to  found  a  colonial 
empire  in  this  realm  discovered  by  La  Salle,  President 
Jefferson  became  alarmed.  A  special  envoy  was  dis- 
patched to  Paris  and  negotiations  for  the  tran-^fer  of  New 
Orleans  with  the  Floridas  or  Louisiana  were  set  on  foot. 
Fortunately  for  the  peace  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  Bona- 
parte had  the  sense  to  see  that  to  maintain  his  authority 
at  New  Orleans  would  cost  more  men  and  money  than  he 
could  well  spare.  On  renewal  of  the  war  with  England 
(1803)  he  was  easily  induced  to  cede  the  whole  Louisiana 
territory  to  the  United  States  for  $15,000,000. 

No  man  in  that  day  knew  the  extent  and  resources  of 
the  region  thus  unexpectedly  acquired.  Captain  Robert 
Ciray  of  Boston  in  the  course  of  a  trading  voyage  along  the 
Northwest  Coast  (1792)  had  come  upon  the  mouth  of 
a  i^'reat  river  which  he  named  after  his  gcxxl  ship  Columbia. 
\;uicouver,  the  English  explorer,  sent  a  slo^p  to  explore 
Uii'  river  in  this  same  year,  and  made  a  thoroughgoing 
surxcy  of  Puget  Sound,  taking  possession  of  the  region 
ill  the  name  of  Great  Britain ;  but  what  lay  between  the 
r;uific  Coast  and  the  Missouri  River  was  still  to  be  dis- 
covered. At  the  suggestion  of  President  Jefferson  (1802), 
("iigress  authorized  an  exploring  expedition  which  was 
li'  iiscend  the  Mi^-'^o'iri  to  its  invir^e  and  rrnsKi  thi-  water- 
shed that  separated  the  eastward  from  westward  flowing 
streams  in  the  hoj>e  of  coming  u|K)n  the  upper  reaches  of 


Jefferson's 
Works, 
VIII,  144. 
igo,  206, 

2()2    26.5,  295. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
VII.  S5t). 

Marvin, 
Ch.  V. 

Laut. 
F>t.  IV. 
Ch.  XI. 


r !:;: 


172      Industrial  Histoty  of  the  United  States 


Thwaites, 
Rocky  Mt. 
Exploration, 
63-208. 


Semple, 
Ch.  XL 


Thwaites, 
Lewis  and 
Clark 
Journals. 


Cones, 
Pike's  Ex- 
pedition. 


il 
ri! 


the  river  discovered  by  Gray  ten  years  before.  In  the 
spring  of  1804  Captains  Lewis  and  Clark  set  out  from 
St.  Louis  on  this  arduous  enterprise.  They  wintered  at 
Mandan,  negotiating  treaties  of  peace  and  establishing 
trading  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes.  During  the  sum- 
mer of  1805  the  little  party  pushed  on  up  the  Missouri 
CO  the  Great  Falls  and  beyond  to  the  mountain  barrier 
that  marked  tbo  confines  of  Louisiana.  There  they  cached 
their  boats,  and,  finding  Indian  guides  and  horses,  they 
crossed  by  Lolo  Pass  to  the  western  slope  of  the  Rockies. 
It  was  a  task  of  enormous  difficulty,  but  pluck  and  endur- 
ance brought  the  explorers  at  last  to  the  Clearwater  River. 
There  they  built  canoes  and  so  floated  down  the  mighty 
River  of  the  West  to  the  Pacific.  The  return  journey  was 
successfully  accomplished  the  following  summer,  and  the 
heroic  captains  reached  St.  Louis  in  September,  1806, 
having  achieved  a  feat  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  e.\- 
ploration. 

Already  in  1804  another  exploring  party,  commanded 
by  Lieutenant  Z.  M.  Pike,  had  ascended  the  Mississippi 
to  Leach  Lake  and  unfurled  the  Stars  and  Stripes  over  the 
British  trading  posts  in  that  neighborhood.  In  the  next 
year  Pike  undertook  to  find  the  source  of  the  Red  River, 
the  boundary  between  New  Spain  and  Louisiana.  Ascend- 
ing the  Missouri  and  the  Osage  rivers  and  thence  crossing 
the  plains  to  the  Arkansas,  ht  reached  the  Rockies  at  the 
foot  of  Pike's  Peak.  Pushing  southward  in  search  of  the 
Red  River,  the  indomitable  lieutenant  led  his  party  over 
the  Front  Range  to  the  sources  of  the  Rio  Grande.  But 
this  was  Spanish  ground,  and  the  exhausted  explorers  were 
s<x)n  arrested  as  spies  an«i  conducted  to  Santa  Fe  and 
thence  to  Chihuahua  for  examination.  No  treasonable  in- 
tent being  discovered,  Pike  and  his  men  were  taken  back 
through  Texas  to  Natchitoches  on  Red  River.  Thus  were 
the  confines  of  the  newly  acquired  territory  determined. 

Both  Pike  and  Lewis  and  Clark  were  in^tr-'.f-ted  tn 
make  carefi !  observations  of  the  regions  traversed.  Their 
journals  contain  interesting  rites  on  the  fauna  and  flora 


National  Biginnings 


173 


ai 


3 


Irving, 
Astoria. 


Turner, 
New  West, 
Ch.  VIII. 


174      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

seen  en  route,  and  they  endeavored  to  ascertain  some- 
thing of  the  industrial  resources  of  the  country.     But 
their  contemporaries  were  fully  absorbed  in  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  lands  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  gave  little 
heed  to  the  new  acquisition.     Jefferson  thought  it  might 
be  utilized  as  a  reservation  for  the  Indian  tribes  who  barred 
the  way  of  the  settlers  in  the  Illinois  country.     The  vast 
wealth,  mineral  and  agricultural,  of  Louisiana  territory, 
and   the   commercial   possibilities  of  the   Pacific    Coast, 
remained  to  be  developed  by  a  later  generat"  -      The 
only  riches  immediately  available  were  furs  and  th*-  profits 
of  the  Indian  trade.     John  Jacob  Astor,  a  New  York 
merchant  who  had  amassed  a  fortune  in  the  China  trade, 
exchanging  furs  for  tea,  divined  the  advantages  of  the 
overland  route  to  the  Pacific.     He  projected  a  series  of 
trading  posts  along  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Missouri 
and  Columbia  rivers  and  propof.ed  to  send  the  furs  taken 
in  these  unexploited  regions  directly  across  the  Pacitk- 
to  Canton.     A  party  of  traders  and  trappers  was  sent  out 
over  the  Lewis  and  Clark  route,  but  the  supplies  were 
forwarded  by  sea.    After  many  and  costly  vicissitudes,  the 
two  parties  met  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  (181 1),  and 
there  a  trading  post,  Astoria,  was  bi-ilt.     Unfortunately 
for  Astor 's  project,  the  British  fur  traders,  the  Northwest 
Company,  contested  the  right  of  the  Americans  to  oix-rate 
in  this  region,  and  Astor's  agents  were  induced  to  abandon 
the   enterprise.     A    man-of-war   flying   the   Union    Jack 
came  to  the  aid  of  the  Northwesters,  and  Astoria  became 
Fof-t  George  (1S12). 


A   I'kinkkh   l'miKiMA(;f 


CHAPTER  VI 


INDUSTRIAL  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  WAR  OF 


1812 


Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Neutral  Trade 


American  Grievances.  —  Jay's  treaty  had  settled  none 
of  the  weighty  commercial  questions  at  issue    between 
England  and  the  United  States.    Another  treaty,  nego- 
tiated in  1807,  President  Jefferson  declined  even  to  refer 
to  the  Senate,  since  it  did  not  provide  for  the  inviolability 
of  neutral  trade  nor  guarantee  American  sailors  against 
being  impressed  into  British  service.     English  statesmen 
maintained  that  the  rights  and  obligations  of   a  British 
subject  were  inalienrble  and  that  a  man  born  in  the  Bntish 
Isles  was  liable  to  impressment  though  he  might  have 
naturalized  as  an  American  citizen.    In  pursuance  of  this 
policy,   British   men-of-war   were   accustomed  to   cruise 
outside  our  harbors,  there  to  overhaul  merchantmen  as 
they  set  sail,  inspect  the  crew,  and  claim  the  saUors  who 
could  not  prove  American  birth.    In  the  case  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, a  cruiser  of  the  United  States  was  forcibly  searched, 
and  four  men  —  three  Americans  and  one  Briton  —  were 
carried  off  in  irons.    Not  less  than  sixteen  hundred  remon- 
strating sailors  were  thus  impressed  into  the  royal  navy, 
and  England,  hard  bestead  to  make  good  the  Iosk.^  of  war, 
was  loath  to  abandon  the  practice.    Three  times  the  right 
of  impressment  had  been  formally  protested  by  the  United 
States    government,   bu'    without    avail.     The    Foreign 
Office  retorted  that  thousands  of  British  sailors  had  de- 
scried from  hi?  Majesty's  ships  and  taken  service  on  Ameri- 
can vessels,  where  higher  wages  and  more  humane  treat- 
ment might  be  expected. 

175 


McM  aster, 
III,  240-335- 

Hildreth, 
VI,  31-57. 
84-i3f).  187- 
206,  300-310. 

Annals  of 
Congress, 
1S14-1S1S, 
1417-1432- 


I"  r. 


Callender, 
239-260. 


1    I 

:«  ■■ 


(  i 


i   i 


■ 


176      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Not  our  seamen  only,  but  our  mercantile  interests  were 
in  jeopardy.  England  was  mistress  of  the  seas,  for  the 
French  fleet  had  been  destroyed  at  Trafalgar,  and  European 
nations,  whether  friends  or  foes  of  Napoleon,  dared  not 
risk  a  vessel  out  of  port.  Few  flags  appeared  upon  the 
high  seas  but  the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
The  war  had  thrown  the  European  carrying  trade  largely 
into  the  hands  of  American  shipmasters,  because  the 
United  States  was  the  only  neutral  nation  possessed  of  a 
considerable  merchant  marine.  Jealous  of  the  com- 
mercial gains  accruing  to  this  formidable  rival,  English 
merchants  and  shipowners  sent  in  vigorous  protests,  and 
the  government  set  about  devising  a  remedy.  An  order 
in  Council  of  1793  declared  "  all  vessels  loaded  with  goods, 
the  produce  of  any  colony  of  France,  or  carrying  provisions 
or  supplies,  for  the  use  of  any  such  colony,"  Uable  to  seizure. 
Under  this  order  British  men-of-war  were  authorized  to 
waylay  merchantmen  bound  to  or  from  the  French  West 
Indies  and  to  confiscate  the  forbidden  goods.  This  policy 
had  important  advantages  for  Great  Britain ;  France  was 
deprived  of  supplies  from  her  colonies,  the  English  treasury 
was  enriched,  and  losses  were  inflictea  on  American  trade 
by  one  and  the  same  seizure.  In  1806  the  coast  of  Europe 
from  Brest  to  the  Elbe  was  declared  under  blockade,  and 
a  neutral  vessel  attempting  to  make  any  intervening  port 
was  lawful  prize.  Many  an  American  ship,  falling  foul 
of  a  British  man-of-war,  was  captured  and  conveyed  to 
a  British  port,  there  to  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of  her  captors, 
and  her  owners  and  the  merchants  who  had  shipped  the 
cargo  were  wholly  without  remedy. 

The  object  of  the  order  of  1800  was  to  punish  Prussia 
for  her  forced  alliance  with  t  _•  enemy,  but  Napoleon,  fully 
master  of  the  Continent  since  the  peace  of  Tilsit,  met  this 
attack  by  a  counter  stroke.  The  Berlin  Decree  closed  all 
European  ports  to  British  vessels  and  British  merchandis^e. 
England  immediately  retorted  by  an  order  in  Council 
announcing  that  no  netural  ship  might  trade  with  France 
or  her  allies  until  she  had  first  touched  at  a  British  port 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     177 


McMaster, 
IJI,  412-417. 


and  paid  reexportation  duties  there.  Napoleon  thereup>on 
issued  the  Milan  Decree,  declaring  every  vessel  complying 
with  the  British  order  "  denationalized  "  and  subject  to 
seizure.  Neither  Great  Briiain  nor  Napoleon  made  any 
serious  attempt  to  enforce  these  blockade'-  by  an  adequate 
naval  force,  but  the  decrees  served  to  justify  the  seizures 
of  neutral  vessels  made  occasionally  by  men-of-war,  more 
often  by  privateers  licensed  by  the  warring  powers. 

The  losses  inflicted  on  American  commerce  were  too 
heavy  to  be  patiently  borne,  and  Congress  was  besieged 
by  petitions  from  the  merchants  of  the  seaports  —  Salem, 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore  — 
setting  forth  the  "  great  injuries  suffered  by  the  aggres- 
sions of  the  belligerent  powers  "  and  demanding  protection. 
The  authorities  were  perplexed.  President  Jefferson,  a  Marvin. 
Virginian  and  a  planter,  had  no  adequate  conception  of  ^h.  VII. 
the  importance  of  the  interests  involved.  He  desired 
above  all  things  to  avoid  war,  and  he  hoped  to  bring  both 
powers  to  terms  by  depriving  them  of  the  benefits  of  Ameri- 
can trade  ;  therefore  he  recommended  to  Congress  in  a  spe- 
cial message  (December  16,  1807)  "  the  inhibition  of  the  de- 
parture of  our  vessels  from  the  ports  of  the  United  States." 
Within  the  week  the  suggestion  of  the  President  became  the 
law  of  the  land.  The  Embargo  Act  prohibited  American 
vessels  already  in  harbor  sailing  for  a  foreign  cruise,  every 
vessel  returning  to  port  was  lo  be  detained,  merchantmen 
owned  by  foreigners  were  excluded  from  American  waters, 
while  the  United  States  navy  and  the  revenue  cutters 
v.cre  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the  executive  for  the  en- 
forcement of  the  order.  Thus,  not  only  transatlarMc  trade, 
but  the  profitable  commerce  with  the  French,  Dutch,  and 
Spanish  West  Indies  that  had  developed  during  the  Euro- 
pean war  was  brought  to  a  standstill,  and  only  the  coast- 
wise trade  remained  open  to  our  merchant  marine.  Lest 
this  atford  chance  to  venture  out  to  sea,  no  vessel,  not  even 
the  smallest  iishing  smack,  was  allowed  to  sail  without 
giving  l)()nds,  six  times  the  \alue  of  her  cargo,  to  reland 
the  same  in  the  United  States.     In  case  of  violation  both 


178      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


II 


Lambert, 
Travels 
through 
Can.  and 
U.S.,  II, 
62-65, 


cargo  and  vessel  were  forfeited,  while  owner  and  captain 
were  subject  to  heavy  fines. 

The  effects  of  the  Embargo  were  soor.  evident  in  dimin- 
ished trade.     The  value  of  the  imports  of  1808  was  not  half 
that  of  1807,  and  the  e.xportations  of  the  Embargo  year 
shrank  to  one  fifth  those  of  the  previous  twelve  months. 
Nevertheless,    the   decline   in    tonnage   registered   under 
the  United  States  flag  for  the  foreign  trade  was  slight. 
Some  ships  were  sold  to  English  firms  or  registered  under 
the  British  flag,  but  most  shipowners  let  their  vessels  lie 
idle  at  the  wharfs,  hoping  for  a  reversal  of  the  administra- 
tion's disastrous  policy.     The  $50,000,000  of  capital  in- 
vested in  shipping  brought  in  no  revenue,  and  thirty  thou- 
sand o'-.t  of  forty  thousand  Ameiican  sailors  were  suddenly 
thrown  out  of  employment.     Some  defiant  sea  captains 
avoided  the  home  ports  altogether  and  made  voyage  after 
voyage  between  foreign  lands,  preferring  to  run  the  risk 
of  capture  rather  than  incur  the  sure  losses  of  detention 
in  an  American  harbor.     Prices  of  foreign  commodities 
doubled,  while  prices  of  domestic  goods  fell  below  the  cost 
of  production.     Lumbermen  and  fishermen  were  reduced 
to  beggary,  and  farmers,  unable  to  dispose  of  their  prod- 
uce, offered  their  lands  for  sale.     The  mercantile  classes 
suffered  no  less.     In  New  York  the  Embargo  caused  one 
hundred    and    twenty   bankruptcies    and    threw    twelve 
hundred  unfortunates  into  the  debtors'  prison.     An  English 
traveler  thus  describes   the  first   commercial  city  in  the 
United  States  after  five  months  of  this  ruinous  regime: 
"  The  port,  indeed,  was  full  of  shipping ;  but  +hey  were 
dismantled  and  laiH  up.     Their  decks  were  cle.  -ed,  their 
hatches  fastened  down,  and  scarcely  a    sailor  was  to  be 
found  on  board.     Not  a  bo.x,  bale,  cask,  barrel,  or  package 
was  to  be  seen  upon  the  wharves.     Many  of  the  counting 
houses  were  shut  up,  or  advertised  to  be  let ;  and  the  few 
solitary  merchants,  clerks,  porters,  and  laborers  that  were 
to  be  seen,  were  walking  about  with  their  hands  in  their 
pockets.     Instead  of  sixty  or  a  hundred  carts  that  used  to 
stand  in  the  street  for  hire,  scarcely  a  do;.;  :^.  appeared,  and 


'U-^ 


-it*'    ^.--i*i. 


Primitive  Limbering 


i 

7 

1 

f!) 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the  War  of  1812     179 

they  were  unemployed ;  a  few  coasting  sloops,  and  schoon- 
ers, which  were  clearing  out  for  some  of  the  ports  in  the 
United  States,  were  all  that  remained  of  that  immense 
business  which  was  carried  on  a  few  months  before. 
The  streets  near  the  waterside  were  almost  deserted,  the 
grass  had  begun  to  grow  upon  the  wharves,  and  the  minds 
of  the  people  were  tortured  by  the  vague  and  idle  rumors 
that  were  set  afloat  upon  the  arrival  of  every  letter  from 
England  or  from  the  seat  of  government." 

When  the  Embargo  gave  way  to  nonintercourse  with 
Great  Britain  (1809)  Americans  speedily  availed  them- 
selves of  the  golden  opportunities  of  neutral  commerce. 
By  1810  our  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade  had 
reached  981,019,  the  highest  point  in  the  first  sixty  years 
of  our  national  history,  while  the  proportion  of  foreign 
trade  carried  on  in  United  States  vessels,  which  had  fallen 
from  92  per  cent  to  86  per  cent  under  the  influence  of  the 
Embargo,   recovered  to  91.5  per  cent. 

The  War.  —  Jefferson's  abstention  policy  served  neither 
to  vindicate  the  rights  of  neutral  trade  nor  to  avert  war. 
Napoleon  made  a  pretense  of  repealing  the  Beriin  and  Milan 
decrees,  but  imposed  restrictions  on  American  commerce 
no  less  burdensome.     England  abolished  the  reexportation 
duties,  but  prohibited  the  carrying  of  American  product^ 
notably  cotton,  to  Continental  ports,  and  the  impressment 
of  seamen  continued  unchecked.     In  181 1  a  congressman 
asserted  that  ten  thousand  American  seamen  had  been 
kidnaped  for  the  English  service.     War  was  declared  in 
June,  1S12.     Our  coasts  were  quickly  infested  by  a  British 
tfwt,  and  thereafter  commerce  with  Europe  was  carried 
on  at  great  risk.     The  war  tariff  of  July  i,  1812,  doubled 
ana  trebled  the  duties  on  imported  commodities.     Imports 
and  exports  rapidly  declined,  until  their  combined  value 
U^i4)  was  but  $20,000,000,  one  seventh  of  the  foreign 
trade  of  iSio.     Our  shipowners  faced  ruin,  and  the  tempta- 
"51  to  revenge  the  seizures  and  confiscations  of  the  ten 
years  preceding  by  direct  retaliation  on  British  commerce 
^^as  too  strong  to  be  resisted.     Spite  of  scruples  as  to  the 


! 

' 

1 

1 

i 

i 

i 

IJ 

Maclay, 
225-226, 
S03-S06. 

Abbot, 
Ch.  V. 


(  ■ 


Annals  of 
Congress, 

1814-1S15, 
1 285-1 298, 
1383-1398. 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

rightfulness  cf  privateering,  many  shipowners  look  out 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  and  armed  their  vessels  for 
war.  Every  species  of  craft  —  merchantmen,  coasting 
schooner,  pilot  boat,  and  fishing  sm^'  '  —  was  fitted  up 
with  guns  and  ammunition  and  sent  v.  ^  to  prey  upon  the 
enemy.  From  Salem,  Gloucester,  Marblehead,  and  New- 
port, from  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  scores 
of  privateers  put  out  to  sea,  and  even  the  Southern  ports 
—  Norfolk,  Wilmington,  Charleston,  Savanrah,  and  New 
Orleans  —  sent  a  considerable  contingent.  Sixty-five  ves- 
sels were  commissioned  as  privateers  in  the  first  three 
weeks  of  the  war,  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  the  first  two 
months.  During  the  summer  of  181 2  one  hundred  prizes 
were  taken,  and  but  fifty  vessels  were  lost  to  the  enemy, 
only  thirteen  of  i.  ese  being  privateers.  During  the  three 
years  of  war  the  five  hundred  and  fifteen  privateers  com- 
missioned by  the  United  States  government  captured 
over  thirteen  hundred  British  ve^  •,  Is,  most  of  them 
merchantmen  carrying  valuable  cargoes.  Congress  al- 
lowed a  rebate  of  one  third  the  import  duty  on  captured 
goods  and  offered  $25  for  each  prisoner  taken. 

The  War  of  18 12  was  a  naval  war  The  exploits  of  our 
little  navy,  coupled  with  the  devastations  wrought  by  our 
privateers,  forced  Great  Britain  to  recognize  that  a  rival 
maritime  power  had  arisen.  A  score  of  signal  victories 
won  in  the  English  Channel,  in  m.id-Pacific,  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  finally  convinced  the 
English  government  that  the  United  States  must  henceforth 
be  treated  with  respect ;  but  the  immediate  result  was  not 
commensurate  with  our  successes.  The  Peace  of  Ghent 
adjudicated  certain  open  questions  as  to  boundaries  and 
the  status  of  hostile  Indian  tribes,  but  settled  none  of 
the  prime  matters  in  dispute.  The  American  contentions 
that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods  and  that  the  flag 
should  protect  the  crew  were  not  incorporated  in  the 
treaty,  nor  would  the  British  commissioners  consent  to 
define  a  legitimate  blockade.  Nevertheless,  England 
quietly  dropped    her    much-prized   right    of    impressing 


Itidits trial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     181 


Americans  into  her  service,  and  having  proved  their  abil- 
ity to  defend  themselves,  our  seamen  were  thereafter  free 
from  molestation.  The  added  prestige  won  by  the  United 
States  in  the  War  of  18 12  was  voiced  by  the  London 
Times.  "  Their  first  war  with  England  made  them  inde- 
pendent; their  second  made  them  formidable." 

The  Reciprocity  Treaties.  —  In  the  first  two  years  fol- 
lowing on  the  Peace,  our  shipping  interests  experienced 
a  remarkable  revival  of  prosperity.    The  total  volume  of 
exports  and  imports  in  1816  amounted  to  ten  times  that 
of  1814,  while  the  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade  rose 
from  674,633  to  860,760.    But  this  welcome  prosperity 
was  short-lived.     By  182 1  the  foreign  commerce  of  the 
United  States  had  shrunk  to  half  the  proportions  of  18 16, 
and  our  ocean  tonnage  was  less  than  in  1797.    A  variety 
of  causes  contributed  to  this  lamentable  decline.    The 
protective  tariff  of  1816  which  discouraged  importation, 
the  business  crisis  of  1819  which  curtailed  investments, 
the  development  of  manufactures  and  domestic  trade  that 
tended  to  make  us  independent  of  foreign  trade,  doubtless 
injured  the  shipping  interest ;  but  the  heaviest  blow  was 
struck  when  Congress  substituted  reciprocity  for  the  dis- 
criminating duties  that  had  hitherto  protected  American 
vessels  again,  t  English  competition.    With  the  intention 
of  freeing  our  ships  from  the  restrictions  imposed  in  British 
and  European  ports,  we  offered  our  rivals  reciprocal  free 
trade.    Discriminating  tonnage  duties  and  excess  duties 
on  goods  imported  in  foreign  vessels  were  to  be  repealed  in 
so  far  as  they  affected  the  countries  that  should  abolish 
all  discrimination  against  the  shipping  of  the  United  States. 
Great  Britain  was  the  first  nation  to  avail  herself  of  this 
generous  offer.     On  July  3,  1815,  a  convention  was    j  1- 
cluded  providing  that  "  there  should  be  between  the  terri- 
tories of  the  United  States  and  all  the  territories  of  His  Bri- 
tannic Majesty  in  Europe  reciprocal  liberty  of  commerce." 
Our  discriminating  tonnage  and  customs  duties  were  re- 
linquished in  exchange  for  the  privilege  of  entering  ports 
of  the  British  Isles  without  let  or  hindrance;   Ai.ierica- 


Bates, 

Q8-129. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  IX. 


Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
1814-181S, 
263-267. 

Annals  of 
Congress, 
181S-1816, 
1478-1S06. 


ill 


n 


182      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


\u 


!   f 

I  ! 


:(: 


<■;! 


Pitkin, 

Slulinliiai 
View  US, 
Ch.  IV 


vessels  were  to  be  "  admitted  and  hospitably  received  at 
the  principal  settlements  of  the  British  donanions  in  East 
India  "  ;  but  the  ports  of  the  British  West  Indies  remr.'ned 
closed  for  fifteen  years  longer,  and  maritime  trade  with 
Canada  was  under  the  ban  until  1850. 

It  is  an  open  question  whether  we  got  more  than  we  gave 
in  this,  and  the  reciprocity  treaties  subsequently  negotiated 
with  Sweden,  the  Netherlands,  Prussia,  Spain,  the  Hanse 
atic  cities,  —  Hamburg,  Bremen,  and  Lubeck,  —  Olden- 
burg, Sardinia,  and  Russia.  During  the  following  decade 
there  was  .some  increase  in  American  tonnage  engaged  in 
foreign  trade,  but  not  in  proportion  to  the  increase  in 
ViOpulation  and  wealth ;  indeed,  tonnage  per  capita  steadily 
declined  The  volume  of  foreign  commerce  gained  but 
slowly,  and  the  figures  of  1806  and  1807  were  .  ot  again 
reached  until  1835.  Notwithstanding  British  competition, 
our  shipmasters  managed  to  increase  their  proportion  of 
transatlintic  commerce  for  the  first  ten  years  of  reciprocity. 
A  line  o^  fast-sailing  packets  was  established  between  New 
York  and  Liverpool  in  1816-1817,  and  another  in  182 1- 
1822,  a  third  line  plied  to  London  and  Havre  after  1822, 
and  a  direct  line  to  Havre  after  1832.  Our  paramount 
advantages  for  the  building  of  sailing  ships  enabled  us  to 
offer  the  most  favorable  terms,  and  thus  for  a  time  to  mo- 
nopolize foreign  commerce  under  a  regime  of  a  free  field 
and  no  favors.  This  advantage  was  largely  done  away 
by  the  tariff  of  1828,  which  imposed  heavy  duties  on  bolt 
iron,  copper,  canvas,  hemp  rope,  etc.,  while  offering  no 
compensating  protection  to  shipping  interests.  Thi' 
British  tonnage  entering  our  ports  was  78,947  in  1830. 
the  year  following  it  rose  to  143,806,  and  the  average  for 
the  decade  1830-1840  was  212,66'  Under  this  keen  com- 
petition freight  rates  fell  disastro  ,  and  the  proportion 
of  foreign  trade  carried  in  Americ  1  Vf  -'^is  dropped  from 
Q2.5  {ier  cent  in  1826  to  ^2.1)  per  tent  ;       -40. 

The  real  gainers  from  the  reciprocity  policy  were  not 
the  shi|M)wners,  but  the  farmers  and  planters,  whose  sur- 
plus products  were  sent  to  ft)reign  markets  at  declining 


Indus ti  •'»/  Consequences  of  the   War  of  ii1i2     183 

freight  ra^es.  The  \;Jue  of  our  cotton  exports  rose  from 
$24,10  o-  .^  in  i8i6  1<' $,0.846,000 in  1825,  and  $64,661,000 
in  1835.  iJ'irirv7  the  ^-^Me  tu.ie  the  exports  of  wheat,  flour, 
rice,  and  tobacco  barely  held  their  own,  not  because  of  any 
check  in  the  foreign  demand,  but  because  all  available 
soils  were  converted  to  cotton  culture.  The  rice  and  indigo 
plantations  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  were  turned 
to  the  growing  of  Sea  Island  cotton ;  the  wheat  fields  of 
the  "back  country"  were  planted  to  the  "green  seed," 
or  short  staple  variety.  Production  increased  from  156,000 
bales  in  1800  to  340,000  in  1810,  and  458,000  in  1816,  and 
606,000  in  1820,  and  from  one  half  to  two  thirds  of  the  crop 
was  exported.  It  was  estimated  that  $40,000,000  was 
invested  in  cotton  plantations,  and  that  the  planters 
cleared  50  per  cent  on  their  investment  during  the  early 
years  when  high  prices  prevailed. 

The  Fisheries.  —  Another  New  England  indub^ry  that 
felt  the  ill  effects  of  the  war  was  the  cod  fishery.  Freedom 
to  fish  off  the  Grand  Banks  and  in  other  Canadian  waters 
had  been  fully  conceded  in  the  treaty  of  1783,  and  our  com- 
missioners wer"  instructed  to  secure  an  equivalent  con- 
cession in  the  Peace  of  Ghent,  but  they  failed  to  do  so. 
The  English  government  declared  that  this  was  a  privilege, 
not  a  right,  and  that  it  had  been  abrogated  by  the  war. 
The  vexed  question  was  adjudicated  in  1818,  when  Ameri- 
can fishermen  secured  the  "  liberty  "  to  fish  within  certain 
limited  areas  and  to  use  such  adjacent  coasts  as  might  be 
unsettled  for  curing  their  fish.  Populated  bays  and 
harbors  could  be  entered  by  our  fishing  smacks  only  when 
in  need  of  shelter,  repairs,  wood,  and  water.  The  Cana- 
dians demanded  that  in  return  for  these  favors  their  fish 
should  be  allowed  full  entry  into  the  United  States ;  but 
the  fishing  interest  protested  against  throwing  open  our 
markets,  and  the  war  duties  of  $1  a  quintal  on  dried  and 
eighty-five  cents  on  pickled  fish  were  retained.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Americans  were  not  allowwl  to  send  fish 
into  the  British  West  Indies.  The  dispute  engendered 
much  bitter  feeling,  and  even  led  to  violent  contests  be- 
tween the  rival  parties. 


fill 


Michaux, 

2QO,  3OJ. 

Hammond, 
/Vppcndix. 


McMaster, 
IV,  457-469. 

Schuy'cr, 
Am.  Diplo- 
macy, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Henderson, 
Am.  Dipl. 
Questions, 
471-500. 
Abbot, 
Ch.  IX. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  XIII. 


!  i   ll 


184      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Bishop, 
II.  146-168, 
188-214. 

Stanwood, 
American 
Tariff  Con- 
troversies, 
I,  U1-137 


Bagnall, 
I,  Ch.  X. 


<;■> 


%■■ 


Pevelopment  of  Manufactures 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cenluiy,  in  spite 
of  the  encouragement,  legislative  and  otherwise,  that  had 
been  given  to  manufactures,  tne  United  States  was  still 
in  the  main  an  agricultural  nation.  We  were  producing 
more  both  of  food  products  and  raw  materials  than  were 
consumed  in  the  country,  and  we  could  not  provide  manu- 
factured commodities  sufficient  to  supply  the  home  market. 
In  the  natural  course  of  trade  our  exports  of  raw  materials 
and  foodstuffs  would  pay  for  the  imports  of  manufactured 
goods.  This  was  satisfactory  to  the  shipping  interest 
since  it  insured  profitable  cargoes,  —  to  the  farmer  sir  :eit 
opened  foreign  markets  for  his  produce,  and  to  the  consumer 
since  he  secured  goods  of  the  best  quality  at  low  prices; 
but  it  placed  manufacturers  at  a  disadvantage. 

Cotton  Manufactxires.  —  The  Embargo,  the  Nonin- 
tercourse  Act,  and  the  War  of  181 2  gave  domestic  manu- 
facturers a  virtual  monopoly  of  the  home  market  for  a 
period  of  seven  years.  The  exclusion  of  English  goods, 
now  as  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  threw  the  country 
upon  its  own  resources,  while  commerce  being  rendered 
unprofitable,  business  enterprise  turned  to  manufactures 
as  the  most  promising  available  venture.  Much  of  the 
capital  withdrawn  from  shipping  was  invested  in  cotton 
mills.  Slater's  success  at  Pawtucket  had  demonstrated 
the  possibilities  of  this  new  textile  industry,  and  nui 
trained  under  his  eye  went  out  to  set  up  rival  establish 
ments.  The  mills  at  Slatersville,  Rhode  Island,  Pomfret, 
Connecticut,  and  Union  Village,  New  York,  were  direct 
ofTshoots  from  the  "  Old  Mill."  For  the  first  ten  years  de- 
velopment was  slow  ;  and  only  four  mills  were  in  successful 
operation  in  1804.  When,  however,  English  competition 
was  excluded,  an  epoch  of  extraordinary  progress  openofl. 
In  1807  there  were  fifteen  cotton  mills  running  8000  spiiuiles 
and  producing  ^^00,000  founds  of  cotton  yarn  annually ; 
in  181 1  there  were  eighty-seven  mills  operating  80,000 
spindles,  producing  2,880,000  pounds  of   yarn  per  year 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1S12     185 


and  employing  4000  men,  women,  and  children;  in  1815, 
500,000  spindles  gave  employment  to  76,000  persons' 
with  a  pay  roll  of  $15,000,000  per  year.  Rhode  Island 
was  the  center  of  this  flourishing  industry.  Within  thirty 
miles  of  Providence  were  one  hundred  and  thirty  mills 
running  130,000  spindles  and  employing  26,000  operatives  • 
hut  other  states  were  not  far  behind.  Massachusetts 
chartered  fifty  textile  companies  between  1806  and  1814; 
New  York  chartered  fifteen  such  corporations  in  the  year 
1813;  there  were  then  five  spinning  mills  in  Paterson, 
New  Jersey,  and  eleven  in  Baltimore.  The  mills  of  New- 
England  were  generally  run  by  water  power,  those  of  the 
West  and  South  more  often  by  horse  pjwer.  Steam  was 
first  successfully  used  as  a  motor  for  spinning  machinery 
at  Ballston,  New  York,  in  1810. 

The  yarn  spun  in  the  mill  was  as  yet  wove.       1  hand 
looms  in  the  homes  of  the  neighboring  countryside.     Many 
efforts  had  been  made  to  imitate  the  power  looms  recently 
introduced  into  the  cotton  factories  of  England.     Machines 
had  been  patented  in  1803  and  1804,  but  they  proved  im- 
practicable.    In  1814  Francis  C.  Lowell  returned  from  a 
European  sojourn  bent  on  establishing  in  Massachusetts  Appleton 
a  cotton  factory  better  than  those  r  f    Manchester.     He  Introduction 
(knised  and  constructed  the  first  successful  power  loom  f  ""■"  ''"*" 
set  up  in  this  country,  and  built,  in  Waltham,  Massa- 
chusetts,  the  first  cotton  mill  in  which  all  the  processes  of 
.M)!nnmg   weaving,  and  priiting  were  carried  on   under 

tln'mswlrery'^V'"'"''  '"'',  "  •^•"'"•^'"^  '"^^'^^^-      ^ther  r.nsu,,.8r., 
V     u      ,   '"    ^'  ^""structcd  and  other  factories  equipped   Manuf;u  - 

^luJl  t  '';'""-^'^^''"K  device.     The   -.chine  was  soon   ^'"\v 
••lapted  to  the  weaving  of  sheetings,  ginghams,  and  sail         '^''' 

Sn.  "Tir^"^!.-?    ^^^   -    ^<:   P—    of  Mo„t.. 


omcrv. 


^„-,i,-  „      ■.     .      '""-    ""I'll-    '11    uie    processes    ot  MontL-i 

mil^"""'",^u  ^^"^^   "l^dering,   and   in   the  central  <--tto:-, 

could  rr;,   /.  '  ""''^  ^^"^^  '''  ^'"^P''^'^''  ^hat  the  looms  '^'-"f-^"-- 
children       1  .    I  ^'""^^■"  ""''   '^'  ^P'""'""'^'   f^^n^es  by 

of  ie  7^rX^'  '^^"^•'"  ^-l^^-     P-"  '••  ve  to  six  sevenths 
tne  operatives  were  women  and  children,  a  result  that 


II 


I 


' 

|!!i,: 

Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance,  II, 
666-689. 


I  I 

I  ! 

1' '  ''  ^ 

8  ^ 


I 

I- 


<^:j 


Census, 
i860.  Manu- 
factures, 
XXVI. 
XXVII. 
XXXI, 
XXXII 


186      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Hamilton  would  have  heartily  approved.  Tench  Coxe, 
writing  in  1813,  wa.xed  eloquent  over  the  industrial  miracle 
achieved.  "  These  wonderful  machines,  working  as  if 
they  were  animated  beings,  endowed  with  all  the  talents 
of  their  inventors,  laboring  with  organs  that  never  tire, 
and  subject  to  no  exjjense  of  food  or  bed  or  raiment  or 
dwelling,  may  be  justly  considered  as  equivalent  to  an 
immense  body  of  manufacturing  recruits,  enlisted  in  the 
service  of  the  country." 

The  value  of  our  cotton  manufactures  in  18 10  was 
b4,ooo,ooo;  in  1815  it  was  $i9,cxx),ooo,  and  nearly  ade- 
quate to  the  needs  of  the  country.  In  1800  the  spinning 
mills  consumed  500  bales  of  cotton,  in  1805,  1000  bales; 
ten  years  later  90,000  bales  were  required  to  feed  the  half 
miUion  spindles.  But  the  cotton  crops  outran  the  domestic 
demand,  and,  notwithstanding  the  increased  consumption, 
the  price  of  cotton  wool  fell  from  twenty-four  cents  a  pound 
in  1800  to  si.xteen  cents  in  1810  because  the  English 
market  was  closed. 

Woolen  Manufactures.  —  Cotton  was  "our  only  re- 
dundant raw  material."  The  development  of  woolen 
manufactures,  on  the  contrary,  was  retarded  by  the  scarcity 
of  wcx)l.  The  effort  to  promote  the  raising  of  sheep,  set  on 
foot  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  had  not  been  very 
successful.  The  climate  of  New  p:ngland,  where  the  agi- 
tation was  most  earnest,  proved  too  severe,  and  most  <>i 
the  wtx)l  made  up  in  the  United  States  was  still  importe  1, 
the  finer  grades  from  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Saxony,  thv 
coarse  from  Russia,  Syria,  and  South  America.  The  epoch 
of  nonintercourse  brought  the  necessity  for  a  domestii- 
sujjply  forcibly  before  the  public,  and  just  at  this  juncture 
the  Peninsular  War  threw  the  Spanish  flocks  upon  tin- 
market.  Enterprising  farmers  began  importing  nicrin- 
sheep,  and  by  i8oq  there  were  five  thousand  in  the  count  r. 
In  iSii  was  organized  the  Merino  Society  of  the  Middlr 
States.  Prizes  were  offered  for  essays  on  sheep  husbandrv 
and  for  the  best  specimens  of  the  Spanish  breed,  and  tlic 
farmers  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  vied  with  each  othi  r 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     187 


in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  their  wool  clips.  Prices 
justified  heavy  expenditure;  merin  wool  sold  at  seventy- 
five  cents  a  pound  in  181 1  and  ranged  from  two  to  three 
dollars  in  18 13. 

The  textile  machinery,  so  successful  in  cotton  manu- 
facture, was  soon  adapted  to  the  spinning  and  weaving  of 
woolen  cloth.     The  manufacture  of  broadcloth  was  first 
attempted    by    two    young    Englishmen,    the    Scholfield 
brothers,  who  set  up  a  carding  machine,  a  spinning  jenny, 
and  a  hand  loom  at  Newbury-port  in  1794.     The  business 
was  soon  transferred  to  Pittsfield,  where  the  Housatonic 
River  furnished  reliable  water  power;    and  here  during 
the   nonimportation    period    a    successful    industry    was 
established.     The   Scholfield   factory  wove   the   material 
for  the  suit  of  domestic  broadcloth  in  which  President 
Madison  was  inaugurated.     The  power  loom  was  introduced 
into  woolen  manufacture  by  Rowland  Hazard  at  South 
Kingston,   Rhode  Island.     Hazard  had  made  a  fortune 
in  the  West  India  trade,  but  having  lost  heavily  by  con- 
fiscations under  the  orders  in  Council,  he  purchased  the 
water  power  on  Rocky  Brook  and  devoted  his  energies 
to  cloth  manufacture.     The  machine  he  introduced  was 
intended  to  weave  boot,  suspender,  and  girth  webbing, 
but  it  was  found  that  the  work  could  be  better  done  on 
the  hand  loom.     The  enterprise  was  pursued,  however, 
with  courage  and  persistence,  until,  by  1828,  a  complete 
\v(H)len  factory,  equipped  with  carding,  spinning,  and  weav- 
ing machinery,  and  all  run  by  water  power,  was  in  full 
operation. 

Iron  Manufactures  were  furthered  by  the  discovery  of 
a  new  fuel,  —  anthracite  coal.  When  the  first  ark  load 
of  "  stone  coal  "  was  brought  down  the  Lehigh  and  Dela- 
ware riwrs  to  Philadelphia  in  180?,  it  was  thought  good 
for  nothing  hut  to  "gravel  footwalks."  The  diflliculty 
of  Igniting  the  lumps  seemed  an  insuperable  obstacle  to 
!t?  use  a:,  fuel,  until  one  Joseph  Smith,  the  inventor  and 
manufacturer  of  the  iron  plowshare,  conceived  the  idea 
(181 2)  of  building  his  fire  over  a  grating  so  as  to  secure 


Bagnall, 
I,  Ch.  VIII, 
X,  XI. 

Census, 
1800,  Manu- 
factures, 
XXIX 
XXX. 


Nichols, 
Story  fif 
Am  ("oals, 
Ch.  IV. 


1 88      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Swank, 
Ch.  XIX, 
XX. 


Michaux, 
126-127,  200, 
171. 


^:i 


I  i 


l-i 


IJ.1 1  ! 


a  stronger  draft.  The  plan  was  successful,  and  heat  suffi- 
cient to  fuse  iron  was  readily  developed.  The  War  of 
1812  cut  off  the  cargoes  of  bituminous  coal  from  England, 
and  since,  with  the  clearing  of  the  forests,  the  supply  of 
wood  was  growing  scant,  the  iron  masters  of  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania were  forced  to  utilize  the  despised  anthracite. 

The  most  important  development  in  the  iron  industry 
was  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Ore  was  discovered  in  the 
valley  of  the  Youghiogheny  and  a  furnace  set  up  in  1790. 
In  1805  there  were  five  furnaces  and  six  forges  in  Fayette 
County,  and  three  rolling  and  slitting  mills  and  a  steel 
furnace  were  successfully  established  by  181 1.  The  iron 
deposits  of  the  river  valleys  to  the  north  were  being  de- 
veloped in  the  same  period.  Because  of  her  unexcelled 
advantages  in  the  way  of  water  transportation,  Pittsburg 
was  the  natural  center  for  this  rising  industry.  Ore  and 
pig  iron  were  floated  down  the  Allegheny  River  and  the 
Monongahela  to  the  foundries,  rolling  mills,  and  nail 
factories  of  the  Smoky  City.  In  18 10  two  hundred  ton^ 
of  cut  and  wrought  nails  were  made  here.  The  output  of 
the  iron  works  of  western  Pennsylvania  —  nails,  hinges, 
locks,  and  builders'  tools,  axes,  spades,  plows,  and  harrows 
for  field  work,  knives,  pots,  skillets,  and  spinning-wheel 
irons  for  household  use  —  were  shipped  down  the  Ohio  to 
the  settlements,  and  on  b>  way  of  the  Mississippi  to  New 
Orleans.  Sugar  kettles  were  supplied  to  the  cane  planta- 
tions of  Louisiana  in  1804.  The  Pittsburg  ironmongers 
had  the  advantage  of  abundant  supplies  of  ore  and  charcoal 
the  immediate  vicinity,  and  could  easily  undersell  the 


m 


v\ares  sent  overland  from  Philadelphia.  Iron  was  fast 
becoming  the  dominant  industry  of  Pennsylvania  east  and 
west,  and  by  18 10  her  enterprising  manufacturers  furnished 
half  of  the  cast-iron  produced  in  the  United  States.  The 
state  then  boasted  forty-four  blast  furnaces,  seventy-eight 
forges,  eighteen  rolling  and  slitting  mills,  and  one  hundred 
and  seventy  nail  factories  where  nails  and  brads  were  cut 
by  machinery. 

According  to  Gallatin's  Reiwrt  on  Manufactures,  the 


i 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812     189 

total  manufacturing  output  of  the  country  in  iSto  was 
vahi^d  at  $121,000,000.  In  manufactures  of  wood,  paper, 
leather,  tallow,  spermaceti,  whale  oil,  and  molasses,  we 
were  producing  enough  to  supply  the  domestic  market, 
J  J  the  output  of  the  iron  works  was  sufficient  within  three 

thousand  tons,  while  the  tobacco  and  hat  manufacturers 
were  exporting  their  surplus  stocks.  According  to  Tench 
Coxe's  more  careful  estimate,  the  annual  value  of  our 
manufactures,  factory  and  domestic,  was  $198,000,000, 
of  which  four  fifths  was  produced  in  Pennsylvania,  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  Maryland. 

The  Effects  of  Peace.  —  British  statesmen  began  to 
realize  th.'t  their  orders  in  Council,  coupled  with  the  con- 
sequent war,  had  rid  them  of  American  rivalry  on  the  sea, 
only  to  develop  domestic  manufactures  to  the  point  where 
the  United  States  would  soon  be  independent  of  Great 
Britain.  Cobbett,  the  economist,  declared,  "  We  have 
before  us  the  seeds  of  a  great  e\  ent,  —  nothing  less  than 
the  complete  and  absolute  independence  of  America  upon 
English  manufactures."  A  ParUamentary  commission 
reported :  "  It  clearly  appears  that  those  manufactures 
have  been  greatly  promoted  uy  the  interrujnion  of  inter- 
course with  ihis  country,  and  that  unless  that  intercourse 
be  speedily  restored,  the  United  States  will  be  able  to  manu- 
facture for  their  own  consumption." 

The  conclusion  of  peace  threw  open  our  ports  once  more 
1'  foreign  trade,  and  English  manufacturers,  eager  to 
ri"j;:!iii  control  of  the  lost  markets,  sent  in  shiploads  of 
I « It  tons  and  woolens  and  iron  manufactures,  which  they 
oiforcd  on  the  most  liberal  terms  to  their  agents  in  this 
Country.  The  goods  were  taken  on  credit  and  disposed 
I  ft  at  auction.     Lord  Brougham  justified  the  speculative 

chiiractcr  of  this  trade  on  the  ground  that  ''  it  was  well 
worth  while  to  incur  a  loss  upon  the  first  exportation,  in 
order  hy  the  glut,  to  stifle  in  the  cradle  those  rising  manu- 
jaciurcs  in  tiie  United  States  which  the  war  had  forced 
into  existence  contrary  to  the  natural  course  of  things." 
The  importations   of    18 15   from   Great    Britain    alone 


J  ! 


Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

u.  425-431. 


Bishop, 
II,  146-160, 
212,  213. 

Bolles, 
II,  Bk.  II, 
Ch.  IV. 

Nile's 
ReRister, 
I,  164. 


Nile's 
Register, 
IV,  los. 


Taussig, 
TaritT  Hist. 
U.S.. 
Ch.  II. 

Bolles,  II, 
387-391. 

Hansard's 
Debates, 
First  Series, 
XXXIII, 

logg. 


I 


<^:j 


J!;  1 1 


Pitkin, 

Statistical 

View, 

261. 

Stanwood, 

I,  131-136. 


Michaux, 
199-206. 


Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

II.  .s')7.  46s ; 

III,  ,?2,   52. 

Sf>.  452. 
454,  460. 


.\m.  State 
Papers, 
rinancc, 
III.  168, 
440-444 


190      Industrial  History  of  the   United  State 

amounted  to  $83,000,000,  and  those  of  1816  came  to  $155,- 
000,000.    American  woolen  mills  closed  down,  and  entrepre- 
neurs like  Scholfield  were  ruined.    The  price  of  wool  fell  in 
the  domestic  market,  the  surplus  wool  clip  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land, and  many  of  the  costly  merino  sheep  were  killed  for 
mutton  and  tallow.  The  iron  manufacturers  of  the  seaboard 
put  out  their  fires.     All  but  five  of  the  forty  plants  of  Mor- 
ris County,  New  Jersey,  were  prostrated,  the  works  were  sold 
at  auction,  and  the  employees  scattered.     Some  furnaces 
and  forges  were  kept  running  by  isolated  farmers,  but  the 
eastern  industry  as  a  whole  was  ruined.    The  iron  foundries 
of  Pittsburg  were  adequately  protected  by  the  expense  of 
transporting   these   bulky   goods   across   the   mountains, 
where  fifty  miles  of  land  carriage  cost  as  much  as  the  ocean 
freight  from  Sweden ;  but  the  bagging  industry  of  Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky,  was  unable  to  cope  with  English  competi- 
tion, for  imported  cotton  bagging  flooded   the  country 
at  prices  far  below  the  normal  cost  of  production. 

The  men  who  had  invested  their  capital  in  the  new 
industries  raised  an  outcry  against  this  destructive  com- 
petition.   Forty  memorials  from  as  many  infant  industries 
and  manufacturing  centers  were  sent  up  to  Congress  in  the 
session  of  1816-1817.     The  cotton  manufacturers  of  Massa- 
chusetts,  Connecticut,   and  Pennsylvania  petitioned  for 
protection  against   the  low-priced  goods  from   England 
and  India;    the  paper  manufacturers  and  printers  pro- 
tested against  the  competition  of  Holland  and  France; 
the  sugar  planters  of  Louisiana,  the  cordage  manufacturers 
of  Massachusetts,  the  hat  makers  of  New  York,  the  gun- 
smiths of  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  proprietors 
of  the  hemp  factories  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  were  no 
less  insistent  on  protection.     The  merchants  of  New  York 
City  denounced  the  auctioneers  and  asked  that  a  10  [ler 
cent  tax  be  levied  on  such  sales.    The  Pittsburg  me- 
morialists complained  "  that  the  manufacture  of  cottons, 
woolens,  flint  glass,  and  the  finer  articles  of  iron  has  lately 
suffered  the  most  alarming  depression.    Some  branches 
which  have  been  several  years  in  operation  have  been 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812     191 


destroyed  or  partially  suspended;  and  others,  of  a  more 
recent  growth,  annihilated  before  they  were  completely 
in  operation.  The  tide  of  importation  has  inundated 
our  country  with  foreign  goods.  Some  of  the  most  valu- 
able and  enterprising  citizens  have  been  subject  to  enormou  ^ 
losses,  and  others  overwhelmed  with  bankruptcy  and 
ruin.  ...  In  the  United  States  we  have  the  knowledge 
of  the  labor-saving  machinery,  the  raw  material,  and  provi- 
sions cheaper  than  in  Britain ;  but  the  overgrown  capital 
of  the  British  manufacturer,  and  the  dexterity  acquired 
by  long  experience,  make  a  considerable  time  and  heavy 
duties  necessary  for  our  protection.  We  have  beaten 
England  out  of  our  markets  in  hats,  boots,  and  all  manu- 
factures of  leather ;  we  are  very  much  her  superior  in  ship- 
building; these  are  all  the  work  of  the  hands,  where 
labor-saving  machinery  gives  no  aid ;  so  that  her  superi- 
ority over  us,  in  manufactures,  consists  more  in  the  ex- 
cellence and  nicety  of  the  labor-saving  machinery,  than 
in  the  wages  of  labor." 

The  diverse  interests  of  shipowners  and  purchasers 
were  li'  -wise  represented.  The  merchants  of  Salem, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Charleston  urged  the  re- 
duction of  the  war  duties  in  the  interests  of  trade.  Virginia, 
voicing  the  interests  of  consumers,  sent  up  five  petitions 
airainst  a  protective  tariff,  urging  that  war  prices,  double 
and  treble  normal  rates,  might  bring  high  profits  to  the 
manufacturer  and  to  the  producer  of  raw  materials,  but 
they  imposed  a  heavy  tax  on  the  outside  public. 

The  Tariff  Act  of  1816.  —  Dallas,  then  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  submitted  to  Congress  (February  12,  1816) 
a  report  on  the  revision  of  the  war  tariff,  in  which  he  ad- 
vocated unreservedly  the  protection  of  domestic  manu- 
iaciurcs.  Domestic  industries  he  classified  under  three 
heads.  First,  those  firmly  established  whose  products 
were  adcfiuate  to  the  needs  of  the  country,  such  as  carriages, 
J-abinet  wares,  cordage,  hats,  firearms,  window  glass, 
boots,  shoes,  and  paper ;  on  these,  the  Secretary  recom- 
mended duties  practically  prohibitory,  on  the  ground  that 


White, 
Memoir  of 
Slater, 
210,  211. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
III,  463,  484, 
S18. 

Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

III.  447. 
458. 

Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
HI,  85-95. 
Belles, 
II,  Bk.  Ill, 
Ch.  III. 

McMaster, 

IV,  Ch. , 
XXXI. 


II 


192      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Rabbeno, 
146-183. 
Stanwood, 
I.  137-157- 


«:i 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 
U.S., 
27-36. 
Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 
U.S., 
4f'-5Q- 


competition  among  domestic  producers  would  soon  lower 
prices.  Second,  he  infant  industries  not  yet  sufficiently 
developed  to  supply  the  demand,  but  in  a  fair  way  to  do 
so,  such  as  cotton  and  woolen  manufactures  of  the  coarser 
grades,  iron,  tin,  and  brass  manufactures,  spirits,  ale,  and 
beer;  on  these,  protective  duties  were  proposed  in  the 
belief  that  the  ultimate  advantages  would  more  than  com- 
pensate the  consumer  for  the  temporary  advance  in  price. 
Third,  industries  in  which  this  country  was  still  heavily 
handicapped  by  lack  of  machinery  or  skilled  laborers, 
such  as  high-grade  cottons  and  woolens,  silks,  linens, 
muslins,  carpets,  hosiery,  hardware,  cutlery,  porcelain, 
liint  glass,  etc. ;  on  these,  duties  should  be  high  or  low  as 
the  interests  of  the  revenue  might  determine.  Duties, 
he  believed,  should  not  be  imposed  on  the  raw  materials 
of  the  manufacturers,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  ship- 
builders, "  which  latter  interest  must  be  respected  at  a 
time  when  the  equalization  of  duties  on  tonnage  and  mer- 
chandise will  probably  give  rise  to  an  interesting  competi- 
tion between  our  own  vessels  and  those  of  foreign  nations." 
In  the  bill  introduced  by  Lowndes  of  South  Carolina, 
30  per  cent  ad  valorem  was  proposed  on  commodities  of 
the  first  class,  25  per  cent  on  those  of  the  second,  while 
duties  on  the  revenue  list  ranged  from  7.5  per  cent  to  15 
and  30  per  cent.  At  the  suggestion  of  Francis  C.  Lowell, 
coarse  cottons  were  given  a  special  form  of  protection  in 
that  a  minimum  valuation  of  twenty-five  cents  a  yard 
was  set  upon  all  imported  goods.  The  effect  was  to 
exclude  the  cheaper  grades  hitherto  imported  from  India 
and,  as  the  Salem  memorial  pointed  out,  to  reduce  the 
East  India  trade  by  half.  The  ironmasters  secured  specific 
duties  of  forty-fi\'e  cents  per  hundredweight  on  hammered 
and  Si. 50  per  hundredweight  on  rolled  iron,  and  from  three 
cents  to  five  cents  a  pound  on  tacks  and  nails,  while  an  ad 
valorem  duty  of  20  per  cent  was  levied  on  other  iron  manu- 
factures and  on  pig  iron,  the  output  of  the  farm  furnaces. 
The  measure  of  protection  secured  by  rolling  mills  and 
nail  factories  was  at  first  conceded  to  be  ample,  but  tho 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     193 


tariff  proved  insufficient  to  shut  out  Swedish  and  English 
imports,  and  an  increase  was  granted  in  1S18.  The  duty 
on  hammered  iron  was  then  raised  to  seventy-five  cents  per 
hundredweight,  and  that  on  pig  iron  to  fifty  cents  per  hun- 
dredweight. The  war  duty  on  salt  (twenty  cents  per 
bushel)  was  continued,  although  the  domestic  product, 
600,000  bushels  per  year,  was  far  short  of  the  demand,  and 
the  annual  importation  amounted  to  3,000,000  bushels.  It 
was  urged  that  the  saline  springs  of  New  York,  Kentucky, 
and  Indiana  could  soon  supply  the  seaboard  market  if  an 
adequate  measure  of  protection  were  accorded.  Specific 
duties  of  ten  cents  and  fifteen  cents  per  gallon  were  laid 
on  ale  and  beer  in  the  interest  of  the  breweries,  but  more 
especially  to  increase  the  demand  for  rye,  barley,  and  hops 
as  a  solace  to  the  producers  of  those  cereals.  The  high 
duties  levied  on  distilled  spirits  during  the  war  were  but 
little  reduced,  and  the  excess  of  from  four  cents  to  seven 
cents  levied  on  spirits  distilled  from  grain  was  maintained 
in  the  interest  of  corn  growers.  The  rum  interest,  so 
prominent  in  the  tariff  debates  of  the  first  decade  of  Con- 
gressional history,  was  less  influential  now.  The  war 
duty  on  molasses  was  cut  in  half ;  but  five  cents  per  gallon 
was  double  the  rate  imposed  in  1789,  and  this  ta.x  on  their 
raw  material  was  protested  in  a  petition  sent  up  by  the 
rum  distillers  of  Boston  in  1820.  Speaking  for  a  "  very 
old  manufacture,"  whose  plants  represented  an  investment 
of  Si, 000,000,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  flagging  West 
India  trade,  they  deprecated  any  increase  of  the  duty. 
But  a  new  and  diverse  interest  had  arisen.  The  cane 
growers  of  Louisiana  asked  not  only  for  a  protective  duty 
on  molasses  but  on  sugar  as  well.  The  planters  had  built 
ninety-one  refineries  at  an  expense  of  $3,500,000,  and  were 
pro'iucing  Si, 000,000  worth  of  sugar  annually,  and  they 
secured  consideration.  The  war  duties  on  the  various 
grades  of  sugar  were  reduced  only  one  third.  The  tax  on 
refined  sugar  held  at  twelve  cents  a  pound  until  1842. 

Clash  of  Sectional  Interests.  —  The  stronghold  of  the 
campaign  for  protection  was  in  the  Middle  and  Western 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions, 24. 


Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

III,  S2»- 

Bishop, 
II,  161. 


Bolle?, 

II.  363,  367. 

304- 


ill 


•  I. 


194      Industrial  History  of  the  Uu'tcd  States 


\  ;^  i 


t 


!   : ! 
i 


Dewey, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Slanwood, 
1,  Ch.  VI. 


riullips,  II, 
3JO-343. 


BoUes, 

II,  Bk.  Ill, 

Ch.  IV 


States.  The  manufacturers  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Pennsylvania  were  supported  by  the  farmers  of  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  whose  wool,  hemp,  and  flax 
brought  better  prices  in  a  protected  market,  and  by  the 
planters  of  Louisiana,  who,  handicapped  by  disadvantages 
of  soil  and  climate,  could  not  compete  with  the  sugar 
growers  of  Cuba  and  Jamaica  unless  protected  by  a  tariff 
wall.  In  New  England  there  was  a  conflict  of  interests. 
Conservati\e  men  were  attached  to  the  accustomed  chan- 
nels of  commerce,  and  these  were  menaced  by  the  pro- 
tective policy.  The  effect  of  high  duties  was  to  diminish 
the  volume  of  trade,  increase  the  cost  of  shipbuilding,  and 
raise  the  price  of  raw  materials  for  rum,  cordage,  and  other 
established  manufactures.  The  textile  interests,  on  the 
other  hand,  favored  high  duties,  and  by  1820  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut  had  come  over  to  the  protectionist  camp. 
Meantime,  Southern  statesmen  had  announced  themselves 
squarely  against  protection.  It  had  become  evident  that, 
spite  of  great  natural  advantages,  cotton  manufactures 
could  not  be  prosecuted  in  the  Southern  states  because 
of  the  inefficiency  of  slave  labor.  Import  duties  tended 
to  enhance  the  price  of  all  they  bought  and  lower  the  price 
of  everything  they  had  to  sell.  The  price  of  raw  cotton 
had  risen  to  twenty-nine  and  a  half  cents  immediu;  ely  after 
the  Peace,  but  was  soon  to  fall  because  of  the  discriminating 
duties  levied  by  Parliament  on  American  cotton.  The 
British  duty  of  6  per  cent  ad  valorem  imposed  in  1S20 
was  raised  to  S7.25  per  bale  in  183 1.  Since  ou-  norma. 
crop  was  more  than  sufficient  to  supply  thi  i()nKi?tK 
demand,  the  surplus  must  be  exported  to  an  uinrieidi" 
market.  The  price  dropped  from  thirty-two  i  t^nt.-  nt'^ 
pound  in  1818  to  seventeen  and  a  half  cents  in  ~2c  ^n  i 
nine  and  a  half  cents  in  1827.  Our  im,»rt  dut^  >f  tan-.- 
cents  a  pound  levied  in  1791  was  continued  ui-ii  1^40. 
but  it  had  ceased  to  have  any  effect. 

The  Tariff  Act  of  1824  was  carried  by  the  votif-  ce  rttr 
Middle   and   Western   states.     The   s]iccial   ad-  *catE    1 
protection  was  Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky,  "  It:    atier   > 


HoRSK-powER  Crusher — Eari.v  Sicar  Mill 


Opf.n-air  Boiler 


f ; 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     195 


the  American  system."  The  argument  of  Randolph  in 
behalf  of  the  consumer  and  that  of  Webster  in  behalf  of 
the  shipping  interest  could  not  avail  against  the  influence 
brought  to  bear  by  the  Eastern  manufacturers  and  the 
Western  farmers.  Increased  duties  were  imposed  on  wool 
and  woolens,  hemp  and  cotton  bagging,  pig  iron  and  iron 
manufactures.  It  was  intended  that  the  duties  on  raw 
materials  should  in  each  case  be  offset  by  a  compensating 
duty  on  the  corresponding  manufacture.  The  25  per  cent 
rate  on  imported  cottons  was  not  increased,  but  the  mini- 
mum valuation  was  raised  from  twenty-five  cents  to  thirty- 
five  cents,  thus  excluding  higher  grades  of  cloth.  Coarse 
cottons  were  now  manufactured  in  New  England  as  cheaply 
as  in  the  old  country,  and  under  the  combined  influence 
of  cheap  raw  material  and  improved  machinery,  the  cost  of 
production  had  diminished  until  our  cotton  manufacturers 
were  able  to  sell  at  English  prices.  The  goods  from  the 
Waltham  mill  that  had  been  sold  for  thirty  cents  a  yard  in 
1816  brought  but  twenty-one  cents  in  18 19,  thirteen  cents 
in  1826,  eight  and  a  half  in  1829,  and  six  and  a  half  cents 
in  1843.  Domestic  competition  served  to  reduce  prices 
within  the  protected  area  exactly  as  Hamilton  and  Dallas 
had  foreseen. 

The  Taril!  Act  of  i8a8.  —  In  1824  Parliament  repealed 
the  import  duties  on  wool,  and  the  price  of  this  important 
raw  material  in  the  British  market  dropped  from  is.  to  id. 
a  pound.  The  English  cost  of  production  was  correspond- 
ingly reduced,  and  American  woolen  manufacturers  peti- 
tiored  for  more  effective  protection.  Massachusetts,  con- 
vinced at  last  that  protection  of  manufactures  was  the 
settled  policy  of  the  country,  led  in  this  agitation.  .\ 
meeting  of  manufacturers  held  in  Boston  voiced  the  de- 
mands of  the  woolen  interest ;  their  raw  materials,  not  only 
\\  ool  but  castile  soap  and  olive  oil,  were  50  |>er  cent  dearer 
than  English  prices,  and  compensating  protection  must 
be  given  their  finished  product.  The  General  Court 
passed  favorable  resolutions,  while  Webster  and  all  l)ut 
one  of  the  Bay  State  congressmen  advocated  a  minimum 


Taussiff, 
Sute  Papers, 
and  Speeches 
on  the 
Tariff, 
232-385. 

Clay,  Life 
and  Speeches, 
II.  i-ss. 
Stanwood, 
I,  Ch.  VII. 


W.iges  and 

Trices, 

1752-1860. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 
U.S..  37- 
45.  63-108. 

fiischuff, 
WiKilen 
Manu- 
factures, II, 
Ch,  I,  II. 

Bollcs,  II, 
393 -40«. 

Stanwoojl, 
I.  Ch.  VIII. 


■m^ 


t! 


196      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


ft  !t; 


4^1 


Ui 


TauuiK, 
State  Papera, 
and 

Spe?rhr5  on 
the  Tariff, 
re8-ji3. 


valuation  clause  in  the  woolen  schedule.  A  national  con- 
vention was  assembled  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  which 
urged  the  protection  of  other  industries,  while  the  congres- 
sional committee  on  manufactures  summoned  business 
men  representing  the  different  manufacturing  interests  to 
testify  as  to  the  nature  and  degree  of  protection  re- 
quired. 

Politics  played  so  large  a  part  in  the  tariff  legislation  of 
1828  that  the  result  was  satisfactory  to  no  section  of  the 
country  except  the  Middle  West.  Duties  on  pig  iron, 
wool,  and  hemp  were  raised  to  prohibitory  rates,  and 
flax  was,  for  the  first  time,  placed  on  the  protected  list. 
The  compensating  duties  on  iron  manufactures,  woolens, 
and  cordage  were  not  high  enough  to  offset  the  increased 
cost  of  production.  The  rum  distillers  were  outraged 
by  the  raising  of  the  import  duty  on  molasses  to  ten  cents 
a  gallon  and  the  withholding  of  the  drawback  previously 
allowed.  The  shipbuilders  were  jeopardized  by  heavy 
duties  on  chains  and  anchors,  sail  duck,  and  cordage,  and 
the  drawback  on  sail  duck  purchased  for  the  use  of  Ameri- 
can vessels  was  disallowed.  These  duties  involved  the 
addition  of  $6.25  per  ton  to  the  cost  of  every  ship  built 
in  the  United  States.  Serious  as  were  the  burdens  im- 
po.sed  on  New  England  industries  by  this  "  tariff  of  abomi- 
nations," it  bore  even  more  heavily  upon  the  South. 
The  prohibitory  duties  on  the  coarse  cottons  and  woolens 
with  which  the  slaves  were  clothed,  on  sugar,  salt,  and  iron 
manufactures,  gave  the  planters  no  choice  but  to  buy  of  do- 
mestic producers  at  prices  averaging  40  per  cent  higher  than 
in  foreign  markets.  The  cotton  crop  of  1831  was  nearly 
treble  that  of  181 5,  but  the  price  in  the  American  market 
was  one  half,  in  the  English  market  one  fourth,  of  that 
prevailing  in  the  year  after  the  war.  The  tariff  was  for- 
mally proteste<l  as  sectional  legislation  and  therefore 
unconstitutional  by  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Alabama, 
Virginia,  and  North  Carolina  in  1829,  and  an  anti-protec- 
tion convention  was  held  at  Augusta,  Georgia.  In  the 
same  year  a  free-trade  convention  was  held  at  Philadel- 


I 


1' 


rfJ.j 


.  I    I 

I  ■    i 

i  ! 

i  i 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     197 

phia  and  a  memorial  addressed  to  Congress,  in  which  the 
views  of  the  anti-tariff  men  were  ably  rehearsed  by  Albert 
Gallatin. 

In  the   Tariff   Act   of  1832  New  England's  interests  BoUes, 
were  reconciled  by  reduction  of  the  rates  on  low-grade  ^''  ^^-  ^^^ 
wools,  hemp,  pig  and  bar  iron,  and  molasses,  and  by  a  ^^'^' 
slight  increase  in  duty  on  woolen  cloth.     Flax  was  restored 
to  the  free  list,  and  the  accustomed  drawbacks  on  rum  and  Stanwood, 
sailcloth  were  again  allowed.    Some  attempt  was  made  ^■*-''-^- 
to  propitiate  the  South  by  a  duty  of  15  per  cent  on  leaf 
tobacco  and  by  revival  of  the  war  duty  of  fifty  cents  a  pound 
on  indigo ;  but  protective  duties  failed  to  raise  the  price  of 
either  product  for  the  same  reason  that  the  price  of  cotton 
had  not  been  advanced  by  the  three  cents  per  pound  tax. 
The  duty  on  salt  was  lowered  from  twenty  cents  to  fifteen 
cents  a  bushel,  but  since  the  selling  price,  fifty  cents  a  bushel, 
was  still  four  times  the  cost  of  production,  consumers  were 
not  reconciled.    A  states  rights  and  free-trade  convention, 
held  at  Charieston  in  July,  declared  that  the  protective 
policy  meant  "  a  steady  discrimination  of  50  per  cent  on 
southern  and  a  bounty  of  50  per  cent  on  northern  industry." 
In  November  following,  the  recently  enacted  tariff  was 
declared  null  and  void  within  the  state  of  South  CaroUna, 
and  steps  were  taken  to  prevent  the  collection  of  duties 
at  the  ports.    The  convention  stated  the  tariff  policy  of 
South  Carolina  in  unmistakable  terms :   "  The  whole  list 
of  protected  articles  should  be  admitted  free  of  all  duty, 
the  revenue  being  derived  from  imposts  on  non-competing 
articles  only." 

Ar;ned  conflict  was  averted  by  concessions  on  both  sides. 
The  Compromise  Tariff  of  1833  gave  "  a  lease  of  mne  years 
to  protection  " ;  the  obnoxious  u  '"s  were  to  be  gradually 
scaled  down  by  one  tenth  of  the  .xcess  each  year,  until, 
in  1S42,  a  horizontal  rate  of  20  per  cent  ad  valorem  should 
be  attained.  In  order  that  the  redundant  revenues  might 
be  decreased,  coffee,  tea,  spices,  and  linens  were  placed  on 
the  Iree  list,  but  none  of  the  raw  materials  produced  by 
the  Western  farmers  were  so  listed. 


198      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Financial  Difficulties 


m 


\    ! 


I  I 


Bolles, 
II,  Bk.  Ill, 
Ch.  II. 

Dewey, 

144-168. 

Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
6I-IS4- 

Holmes, 

U.S.A., 
211-115. 


Bullock, 
74-78. 


Hildreth, 

III,  466,  sis ; 

IV,  25; 

V,  415. 


McMaster, 
IV,  Ch. 
XXX, 
XXXVI. 


The  failure  of  Congress  to  recharter  the  national  bank 
had  greatly  embarrassed  the  government  in  the  financing 
of  the  war  and  deprived  the  country  of  its  most  reliable 
currency.  Five  million  dollars  in  national  bank  notes 
were  withdrawn  from  circulation.  The  $7,000,000  in 
specie  that  had  been  contributed  by  foreign  stockholders 
was  sent  back  to  Europe,  and  the  coin  remaining  in  the 
country  was  thereafter  withheld  from  circulation.  This 
was  the  opportunity  for  which  the  private  banks  had  con- 
tended. Hundreds  of  joint  stock  companies  immediately 
secured  charters  from  the  state  governments  and  proceeded 
to  issue  notes  with  no  adequate  provision  for  redemption. 
The  older  and  wealthier  sections  of  the  country  had  learned 
the  lessons  of  depreciation  and  undertook  to  avert  the 
disasters  consequent  on  excessive  issue  of  credit  money. 
The  banks  of  Massachusetts  and  of  New  York  were  re- 
stricted as  to  the  proportion  between  issues  and  assets, 
and  were  managed  on  soimd  business  principles.  In  the 
South  and  West,  however,  where  land  was  abundant  but 
capital  with  which  to  develop  its  resources  scarce,  men 
still  hankered  for  cheap  money  and  plenty  of  it,  and  the 
state  authorities  and  the  bankers  sympathized  with  this 
predilection.  Between  181 1  and  1816  the  number  of 
banks  of  issue  was  trebled,  and  the  circulation  increased 
from  $45,000,000  to  $100,000,000.  But  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  notes  declined  with  increased  issues.  The 
notes  of  the  Washington  and  Baltimore  banks  were  22 
per  cent  below  par,  those  of  Philadelphia  18  per  cent, 
those  of  New  York  10  per  cent.  Finally,  in  1814,  all  the 
banks  outside  of  Massachusetts  suspended  specie  pay- 
ment. From  Maine  to  New  Orleans,  and  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Missouri,  these  "  wild-cat "  banks  declined  to 
redeem  their  notes,  and  the  government  itself  could  not 
require  specie  in  payment  of  taxes.  Business  men  began 
to  petition  for  a  national  bank  of  issue. 
The  Second  National  Bank.  —  The  Secretary  of  the 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812     1 99 


Treasury  urged  upon  Congress  the  necessity  of  recourse 
to  a  national  bank  as  the  only  means  of  enabling  the  gov- 
ernment to  meet  its  obligations,  provide  the  country  with 
a  stable  currency,  and  force  the  state  banks  to  resume 
specie  payment.  Dallas'  measure  was  deferred  until  18 16, 
when  a  bank  was  chartered  upon  substantially  Hamilton's 
plan,  but  on  a  scale  befitting  the  expansion  of  business 
in  the  twenty-five  years'  interval.  The  capital  stock  was 
$35,000,000,  of  which  $7,000,000  was  to  be  subscribed  by 
the  government  and  $28,000,000  by  private  parties. 
Three  fourths  of  the  private  subscription  was  to  be  in 
government  bonds  and  one  fourth  in  specie.  The  bank 
was  authorized  to  issue  convertible  notes  to  the  full  amount 
of  its  capital,  and  national  bank  currency,  though  not 
legal  tender,  was  receivable  at  par  in  all  payments  to  the 
United  States  Treasury.  Five  of  the  twenty-five  directors 
were  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  Congress  was  empowered  to  order  an  inspection  of  the 
bank  management  whenever  it  fell  under  suspicion.  The 
central  bank  was  opened  at  Philadelphia  in  January,  18 17, 
and  twenty-five  branches  were  established  in  other  busi- 
ness centers. 

The  successes  of  the  first  national  bank  were  repeated 

only  in  part.    The  extraordinary  demand  for  government 

bonds  brought  this  paper  up  to  par  and  relieved  the 

Treasury  of  serious  embarrassment.    The  national  bank 

notes  proved  a  welcome  addition  to  the  currency,  especially 

iu  the  South,  where  there  was  no  specie  and  where  the  local 

i>'^ues  were  thoroughly  discredited  ;  but  the  task  of  forcing 

the  state  banks  back  to  a  specie  basis  proved  t<x)  great  for 

an  institution  organized  with  undue  haste  and  financed 

\v'th  criminal  tolerance.    The  business  was  mismanaged 

frtmi  the  start.     Of  the  $7,000,000  specie  required  in  the 

charter,  but  $2,000,000  was  actually  contributed,  and  of 

the  Si  1,000,000  bond  subscriptions,  but  $9,000,000  was 

m:H!*'  j^ood    in   government    bonds,  the   {lersonal    notes 

of  subscribers  being  accepted  in   lieu  of   the   stipulated 

payment.    Undeterred  by  the   fact  that  a  considerable 


Am.   State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

II,  872; 

III.  S7-6I- 


I  f 


i.  ^. 
^  'i 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue,  340- 
357- 


IF'IIHP 


i    il 

1^1  ■■'' 
\W  t 

Is  u    > 
ll 


i    >■<: 


% 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
III,  306-391- 


>i\ 


Carey, 
The  Crisis. 

Turner, 
New  West, 
Ch.  IX. 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions, 
aij-213. 

D  wight, 

I,   ai8-222. 


Cnn-inf, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
617-618. 


200      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

portion  of  its  capital  stock  was  but  dubious  assets,  the 
management  awarded  dividends  to  subscribers  whose 
stock  was  not  paid  in,  loaned  freely  and  with  inadequate 
security  to  the  struggling  state  banks,  discounted  heavily 
the  business  paper  presented  by  stockholders,  and  issued 
currency  in  excess  of  the  normal  financial  needs  of  the 
country. 

Unwarranted  accommodations  and  speculation  brought 
the  institution  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy  in  1818,  when 
the  Baltimore  branch  failed  for  $3,000,000.  An  investi- 
gation of  its  affairs  was  ordered  by  Congress  and  a  vigor- 
ous reform  prescribed.  The  original  management  was  ob- 
Uged  to  resign,  Langdon  Cheves  of  Charleston  was  elected 
president,  and  under  his  conservative  administration  the 
National  Bank  retrieved  its  financial  standing.  But  a 
reform  administration  could  not  avert  the  business  crisis 
which  years  of  speculation  and  wild-cat  banking  had  en- 
gendered. The  sudden  contraction  of  credit,  following 
upon  a  period  of  reckless  financiering,  jeopardized  banks 
and  business  enterprises  everywhere  outside  of  New 
England. 

The  Crisis  of  1819.  —  Not  the  banks  only,  but  business 
men  of  all  classes  had  been  mortgaging  the  future  beyond 
warrant.  Manufacturers,  encouraged  by  the  prospect  of 
adequate  protection,  enlarged  their  plants  and  doubled 
their  output.  Land  companies  invested  borrowed  money 
in  property  that  could  not  be  sold  at  a  profit,  and  farmers 
mortgaged  their  lands  for  the  wherewithal  to  make  im- 
provements. Large  sums  were  sunk  in  canals  and  post 
roads  that  could  not  pay  dividends  on  the  investment, 
much  less  make  good  the  obligations  incurred.  Con- 
fidence in  the  resources  of  the  country  and  its  ultimate 
prosperity  led  men  to  anticipate  industrial  development 
by  a  generation  and  to  risk  too  much  upon  the  immediate 
future. 

The  contraction  of  the  currency  from  $110,000,000  in 
1816  to  $65,000,000  in  1819,  and  the  refusal  of  the  National 
Bank  to  discount  any  but  well-secured  paper,  called  a 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     201 


sudden  halt  in  this  mad  career  of  speculation.  Hundreds 
of  business  enterprises  were  prostrated,  and  thousands  of 
apparently  prosperous  men  were  ruined.  The  closing 
of  factories  threw  workmen  out  of  employment,  and  the 
streets  of  Phllade'phia,  Baltimore,  New  York,  Pittsburg, 
and  many  lesser  manufacturing  and  commercial  centers 
were  thronged  with  destitute  men  and  women  seeking 
work.  Prices  fell,  and  the  value  of  real  estate  shrank  to 
one  third  the  level  of  the  speculative  j>eriod. 

In  the  Mississippi  Valley  the  speculative  demand  for 
money  had  been  even  greater  than  in  the  East.  Virgin 
soil  and  limitless  possibilities  in  the  way  of  development 
created  a  reckless  system  of  financiering  that  brooked 
no  restraint.  Silver  sufficient  to  serve  as  the  medium  of 
exchange  came  into  the  country  through  the  New  Orieans 
trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  Mexico,  but  the  demand 
for  capital  with  which  to  develop  the  country  could  only 
be  met  by  credit  agencies.  In  1817-1818  forty  banks 
of  issue  had  been  chartered  in  Kentucky,  apd  Tennessee 
and  Ohio  hastened  to  adopt  the  same  alluring  expedient. 
The  banks  issued  money  without  stint  and  loaned  to 
speculators  on  easy  terms.  Prices  rose,  and  though  the 
silver  went  over  the  mountains  to  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, the  Mississippi  Valley  seemed  to  be  in  the  heyday 
of  prosperity.  Then  suddenly,  in  18 19,  the  National  Bank 
presented  an  accimiulation  of  notes  for  redemption;  the 
state  banks,  unable  to  meet  their  obligations,  were  forced 
to  suspend  spede  payment,  and  the  boom  collapsed.  To 
mitigate  the  general  distress  the  state  legislatures  passed 
relief  laws,  staying  proceedings  against  debtors.  Kentucky 
undertook  to  meet  the  situation  by  establishing  the  Bank 
of  the  Commonwealth,  authorized  to  issue  notes  on  the 
basis  of  the  state  revenues  and  to  loan  the  same  to  needy 
I>ersons  on  land  security,  but  the  remedy  was  worse  than  the 
disease.  In  1822  the  notes  of  the  bank  were  worth  fifty 
cents  on  a  dollar,  and  its  benefidaries  were  owned.  The 
farmers  lost  their  land  and  left  the  state  by  hundreds 
and  thousands,  and   business   men  were  put   to    every 


Wages  and 

Prices, 

243-247. 


I 


Holmes, 
211-215. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
132-136, 
238,  274, 
294. 


ir 


! 


202 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


'  ii 


i      irt 


■ « 


■«» 


Ull 


Mr 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
130-131. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
133- 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
225. 


expedient  to  provide  money  for  cash  payments.    A  Scotch 

traveler  described  the  situation  as  follows :  "  In  this  western 

country  there  is  a  great  diversity  of  paper  money.    Smal 

biUs  are  in  circulation  of  a  half,  a  fourth,  an  eighth,  and 

even  the  sixteenth  of  a  doUar.    These  small  rags  are  not 

current  at  a  great  distance  from  the  places  of  their  nativity. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  Uttle  specie  to  be  seen  is 

of  what  is  called  cut  money,  —  dollars  cut  into  two,  four 

eight  or  sixteen  pieces.    This  practice  prevents  mud 

money  from  being  received  in  banks,  or  sent  out  of  tht 

country  in  the  character  of  coin,  and  would  be  highlj 

commendable  were  it  not  for  the  frauds  committed  b) 

those  who  clip  the  pieces  in  reserving  a  part  of  the  meta 

for  themselves.  .  .  ."    Again,  writing  of  Cincinnati:-- 

"There  is  here  much  trouble  with  paper  money.     Ih^ 

notes  current  in  one  part,  are  either  refused,  or  taken  a 

a  large  discount,  in  another.    Banks  that  were  creditabl 

a  few  days  ago,  have  refused  to  redeem  their  paper  in  specie 

or  in  notes  of  the  United  States'  Bank.  ...    The  creatio 

of  this  vast  host  of  fabricators,  and  venders  of  base  monej 

must  form  a  memorable  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  counlrj 

These  craftsmen  have  greatly  increased  the  money  capiti 

of  the  nation;   and  have,  in  a  corresponding  degree,  er 

hanced  the  nominal  value  of  property  and  labor.    B 

lending,  and  otherwise  emitting,  their  engravings,  the 

have  contrived  to  mortgage  and  buy  much  of  the  proper! 

of  their  neighbors,  and  to  appropriate  to  themselves  U 

labor  of  less  moneyed  citizens.    Proceeding  in  this  manne 

they  cannot  retain  specie  enough  to  redeem  their  bill 

admitting  the  gratuitous  assumption  that  they  were  oni 

possessed  of  it.    They  seem  to  have  calculated  that  il 

whole  of  their  paper  would  not  return  on  them  m  one  da 

Small  quantities,  however,  of  it  have,  on  various  occasior 

been  sufficient  to  cause  them  to  suspend  specie  paymeni 

"  The  money  in  circulation  is  puzzling  to  traders,  ai 

more  particularly  10  strangers ;  for  besides  the  muUiplici 

of  banks,  and  the  diversity  in  supposed  value,  Auctuatio 

are  so  frequent,  and  so  great,  that  no  man  who  holds 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812     203 

in  his  possession  can  be  safe  for  a  day.  The  merchant, 
when  asked  the  price  of  an  article,  instead  of  making  a 
direct  answer  usually  puts  the  question,  '  What  sort  of 
money  have  you  got  ?  '  Supposing  that  a  number  of 
bills  are  shown,  and  one  or  more  are  accepted  of,  it  is  not 
till  then,  that  the  price  of  the  goods  is  declared ;  and  an 
additional  price  is  uniformly  laid  on,  to  compensate  for 
the  supposed  defect  in  the  quality  of  the  money." 


Land  Speculation 

Contemporary  Americans,  both  east  and  west  of  the 
AUeghanies,  were  possessed  with  a  mania  for  the  unex- 
ploited  soils  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Large  tracts  were 
to  be  had  of  the  land  offices  at  wholesale  prices,  and  these 
were  bought  up  by  men  of  means  or  influence  and  retailed 
to  would-be  farmers  at  sufficient  advance  to  realize  a  con- 
siderable profit.  The  sales  were  made  on  credit,  but  the 
land  was  usually  mortgaged  to  the  full  amount  of  the  de- 
ferred obligation  so  that  ultimate  returns  were  guaranteed, 
provided  the  tract  was  so  situated  as  to  be  readily  salable. 

The  Emigrants.  —  No  less  speculative  were  the  ventures 
of  the  men  and  women  who  had  nothing  to  risk  but  their 
lives.  Forbes's  Road  was  the  usual  route  across  the 
AUeghanies,  although  the  new  Cumberland  Road  was 
shorter.  People  of  means  traveled  in  the  stage  coaches, 
paying  a  round  price  for  transportation  and  luggage. 
Siiisrle  men  might  ride  horseback  at  less  cost.  Families 
found  cheaper  and  more  commodious  accommodations 
in  a  Conestoga  wagon,  purchased  at  Philadelphia  to  be 
solil  at  half  price  in  Pittsburg,  or,  if  their  destination  lay 
I'.ot  far  beyond,  to  be  driven  on  for  farm  use.  E\ery 
variety  of  vehicle,  and  all  types  of  people,  were  making 
their  itiilsome  way  along  the  rougl:  military  road.  "  The 
father  may  be  seen  driving  the  waggon,  and  the  women 
atui  children  bringing  up  two  or  three  cows  in  the  rear. 
They  carry  their  provisions  along  witli  them,  and  wrap 
themselves  in  blankets,  and  sleep  on  the  floors  of  taverns  " 


Clay,  Rept. 
on  Public 
Lands,  1832. 
Life  and 
Speeches, 
II,  70-76. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
64-82. 


Flint. 

Letters  from 
America. 
07. 


204 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


^11 


H^ 


:«* 


I 1  t-uder  i  ia^uSi.  to  tbu  8i.  Mile 

r  33 J  toe        

CZD'-l 

[~:^U-45 

TI-IS-M  "         "    "     "       " 

N  and  o«f         "    "    "       " 

CUiM  wtfr  9000  inAutifonfi  M  •bU(< 

M«.. "....«.  Distribution  of  Popuiation,  1830 


•jWi !  .  ■^oS-'': 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1S12     205 


at  a  charge  of  twenty-five  cents  per  family.  Other  pioneers 
w'thout  the  wherewithal  to  purchase  a  wagon  walked  the 
whole  distance,  dragging  their  effects  in  a  on  horse  cart 
or  pushing  them  along  in  a  wheelbarrow.  Many  of  the 
keelboats  that  floated  down  the  Ohio  carried  an  entire 
family  and  all  their  earthly  possessions,  household  goods, 
farm  tools,  cattle,  and  horses.  They  landed  where  chance 
or  caprice  might  determine,  on  me  Kentucky  or  Illinois 
bank,  or  if  the  current  favored,  pushed  on  to  the  Mississippi 
or  to  the  Missouri.  It  was  a  veritable  race  migration, 
impelled  by  the  love  of  adventure,  by  land  hunger,  by 
the  gambling  instinct  of  the  frontier. 

To  Old  World  peasants,  the  opportunity  to  purchase 
new  land  at  a  nominal  price  and  to  cultivate  it  on  their 
own  account,  unvexed  by  rentals,  tithes,  or  poor-rates, 
seemed  the  open  door  to  fortune.  They  seldom  reckoned 
on  the  costs  and  hazards  of  the  journey  —  the  inevitable 
hardships  of  frontier  life,  the  heavy  labor  necessary  to 
clear  the  forest,  plow  the  untamed  soil,  build  houses, 
barns,  fences,  and  roads,  the  insidious  poison  of  the  omni- 
present malaria.  Many  succeeded  far  beyond  any  possi- 
bility that  the  fatherland  could  offer  them ;  but  many  who 
had  set  out  with  the  highest  hopes  were  soon  overwhelmed 
by  illness  or  debt,  and  perished  miserably,  or  made  their 
painful  way  back  to  the  seaboard,  bitterly  lamenting  the 
hardihood  that  had  led  them  to  trust  their  fortunes  to 
the  glowing  misrepresentations  of  a  land  syndicate.  The 
vikings  of  this  migration  were  the  Kentuckians,  the  sons 
of  the  Virginians  and  Carolinians  who  had  followed  Boone 
across  Cumberiand  Gap.  Inured  to  hardship,  impatient 
of  the  restraints  of  civilization,  they  bartered  their  chances 
in  the  "  settlements  "  for  a  stake  in  the  wilderness,  and 
pressed  to  the  West,  where  land  v  ..s  still  abundant  and 
cheap.  Inspired  by  the  restless  energy  of  their  ancestors, 
the  Kentuckians  were  always  on  the  move.  They  pined 
for  elbuw-room  and  deemed  neighbors  less  desirable  than 
freedom  to  trap,  to  hunt,  to  pasture  their  cattle  in  the  open. 
To  a  \e\v  England  observer  this  migratory  habit  seemed 


Michaux, 
188-194. 


Birbeck, 
60-62. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
287. 


Flint,  Rec- 
ollections of 
Last  Ten 
Years, 
72-73- 


Birbeck, 

120-126, 
IS4-ISS- 


•li 


\\ 
II 


I  •■  ■ 


11 


-;  1, 


m 


in*!  I 

.        t  i  ?! 


Flint, 

Recollections 
of  Ten 
Years, 

n- 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
232-236. 


Flint, 

Recollections 
of  Ten 
Years,  9. 


Birbeck, 
34.  63. 


Weld, 
230-234- 
Michaux, 
6g-7J,  1S>. 
183-185. 

Flint, 

Recollections 
of  Ten  Years, 
236-237- 
Martineau, 
1,  297-S99- 


206      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

to  jeopardize  everything  which  the  normal  man  held  dear. 
"  The  present  occupants  sell,  pack  up,  depart.    Strangers 
replace  them.    Before  they  have   gained  the  confidence 
of  their  [new]  neighbors,  they  hear  of  a  better  place,  pack 
up  and  follow  their  precursors."    The  deserted  homes  were 
purchased  by  men  of  more  means  and  soberer  habits,  men 
who   set    about    building    substantial    houses,    planting 
orchards,  organizing  schools  and  churches,  and  promoting 
transportation  facilities  that  should  convey  their  produce 
to  market.    These  were  the  farmers  and  planters  who 
sent  boatloads  of   wheat,  bacon,  whisky,  and  salt  down 
to  New  Orleans  and  the  Caribbean  islands  or  dispatched 
droves  of  cattle  and  hogs  "  back  east "  along  the  Penn- 
sylvania Road  to  be  fattened  for  the  Philadelphia  abattoirs. 
Even  more  staid  and  prosperous  were  the  little  German 
communities  located  with  careful  foresight  on  the  most 
fertile  soil  and  within  easy  reach  of  a  good  waterway. 
Here  industry  and  contentment,  a  predilection  for  the 
German  tongue  and  for  a  specie  currency,  reproduced 
the  conditions  of    the  fatherland.     Travelers    such  as 
Weld,  Timothy  Flint,  Michaux,  father    and    son,    and 
Harriet  Martineau  all  testify  that  the   most  promising 
of  the  nioneers  were  the  Germans;   next  in  capacity  for 
transforir  ing  the  forest  into  productive  farmland  came  the 
Anglo-Americans,  then  the  Scotch-Irish,  and  then  the  Eng- 
lish, and  that  the  least  likely  to  succeed  in  the  task  of 
civilization  were  the  men  of  French  blood,  whether  the 
half  Indian  habitants  of  Vincennes  and  Cahokia  or   the 
newly  imported  Parisians  of  Gallipolis. 


CHAPTER  VII 

INDUSTRIAL  EXPANSION  AND  THE  CRISIS  OF 

1837 

Speculative  Investment 

0.  second  war  of  independence  at  an  end,  the  nation 
was  blessed  by  thirty  years  of  peace.  Party  strife,  which 
had  well-nigh  brought  about  the  secession  of  New  England 
in  1816,  died  down  into  the  "  era  of  good  feeling."  The 
vexed  problems,  political  and  economic,  that  had  agitated 
the  administrations  of  Washington  and  Adams,  Jefferson 
and  Madison,  were  solved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  new 
generation  of  statesmen:  protection  to  manufactures, 
freedom  of  commerce,  state  regulation  of  slavery,  banking, 
and  internal  improvements.  Men  were  free  at  last  to 
devote  their  energies  to  the  material  development  of  the 
country. 

Manufactures.  —  The  series  of  high  tariffs  enacted 
during  and  after  the  war  gave  American  manufacturers  two 
decades  of  protection,  and  they  made  good  use  of  their 
monopoly  of  domestic  markets.  Under  the  stimulus  of 
the  patent  law,  mechanical  improvements  were  being 
mtrotluced  into  every  branch  of  manufacture.  With  in- 
creasmg  capital,  labor-saving  machinery,  and  the  skillful 
adaptation  of  water  and  steam  power,  the  factory  era  was 
well  under  way,  and  cotton,  woolen,  and  iron  manufactures 
were  established  on  an  assured  basis. 

The  massing  of  laborers  in  factories  and  workshops 
meant  ihe  rapid  growth  of  an  urban  population.  Wherever 
jn  ^cw  England,  New  York,  or  Pennsylvania,  a  river 
lurmshed  waterpower  or  cheap  transportation,  the   op- 

ao7 


''ill 

ill 
1 


i  4 


t] 


FlffP 


Chevalier, 

United 

States, 

128-133. 

i37-»44- 


ill 


208      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

portunity  was  utilized  to  the  utmost,  and  factory  towns 
™ng  into  existence  overnight.    In  1810  there  were  only 
sixteen  towns  that  boasted  more  than  three  thousand  m- 
habitants,  and  these  were  seaports  such  as  Bof  o^'  New 
York  PhUadelphia,  and  BalUmore  ;  or,  hke  Albany,  Puts- 
burg  New  Orleans,  and  Richmond,  owed  their  prosperity 
to  £»me  navigable  river.    The  census  of  1840  reported 
forty-two  towns  having  a  population  of  more  than  three 
thousand,  and  fully  half  of  these,  such  as  Lowell  and 
Lawrence,  Massachusetts,   Paterson  and  Newark    New 
Jersey,  Syracuse,  New  York,  and  Reading,  Pennsylvania, 
had  their  origin  not  in  commerce  but  in  manufactures. 
The  towns  grew  at  the  expense  of  the  rural  distncts 
especially  in  the  North  Atlantic  states,  where  all  the  good 
land  had  long  since  been  taken  up,  and  where  cultivation 
was  already  yielding  diminishing  returns.    The  ambitious 
young  men  sought  employment  in  the  cities,  and  the 
farmers'  daughters  flocked  to  the  mill  towns  to  earn  at 
the  spinning  frame  or  power  loom  the  wherewithal  foi 
a  dowry  or  an  education. 


II 


Census,  igoo, 
IX,  II. 


Product  or  Manufactures 


Cotton  mf.  .  . 
Wotilen  mf.  .  . 
Iron  mf.  in  tons 


1820 


$4,834,157 

4,4i3,o<)8 

30,000 


1830 

1840 

$22,534,815 

I4,Sj8,i(.6 
165,000 

$46,350453 

iO,6Q6,Q9Q 

286,903 

SI 


Chickering. 

Foreign 

Immigration. 


The  population  of  Eastern  cities  was  further  augments 
by  immigration.  A  i)eriod  of  industrial  depression  follov 
ing  close  on  the  Napoleonic  wars  threw  thousands  < 
European  workmen  out  of  employment,  and  the  shi] 
were  crowded  with  destitute  families,  English,  Irish,  aii 
German,  who  gladly  abandoned  the  ir  ooverished  oi 
world  to  seek  a  living  in  America.    In  the  decade  fro 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  1837     209 


1820-1830,  150,000  aliens  entered  the  ports  of  the  United 
States,  and  in  the  decade  following  this  number  was 
quadrupled. 

Agriculture.  —  Throughout  the  North  Atlantic  section, 
except  where  the  river  bottoms  offered  soils  of  exceptional 
fertility,  agriculture  was  declining.  The  barren  hill  farms 
of  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  and  New  York  afforded  but 
a  meager  reward  to  labor  by  comparison  with  the  govern- 
ment lands  still  available  in  the  Mississippi  VfUey,  and 
by  consequence  the  young  men  of  energy  and  ambition 
were  drawn  to  the  West,  "  to  the  fertile  prairies  of  Illinois 
and  Indiana  and  the  alluvions  of  Ohio."  Harriet  Marti- 
neau,  who  visited  New  England  in  1835,  "  heard  frequent 
lamentations  over  the  spirit  of  speculation ;  the  migration 
of  young  men  to  the  back  country ;  the  fluctuating  state 
of  society  from  the  incessant  movement  westward;  the 
immigration  of  laborers  from  Europe ;  and  the  ignorance 
of  the  sparse  [country]  population." 

In  the  South  Atlantic  states,  the  westwaid  movement 
was  no  less  apparent.  The  soil  of  the  Carolinas  was 
exhausted  by  continuous  cotton  culture  and  the  plantations 
no  longer  rendered  a  money  surplus.  The  younger  sons 
were  fain  to  migrate  with  slaves  and  overseers  into  the  un- 
exploited  wilderness  of  the  Gulf  states.  The  population 
of  Alabama  and  Missouri  was  doubled  and  that  of  Missis- 
sippi trebled  between  the  fifth  and  the  sixth  census,  the 
access  of  negroes  being  even  more  rapid  than  tiiat  of  the 
whites.  The  rich  allu\nal  lands  quickly  repaid  the  labor 
spent  upon  them ;  the  forests  once  cleared  and  the  black 
s(Kiden  soil  turned  up  to  the  sun,  marvelous  crops  of  cotton 
were  produced.  The  price  of  this  staple  was  again  rising 
in  response  to  the  augmented  demands  of  Old  and  New 
Kngland.  The  nadir  point  was  reached  in  1830,  when 
upland  cotton  sold  for  six  cents  per  fwund,  but  the  price 
rose  to  eleven  and  three  fourths  cents  in  1833,  and  twenty 
cents  in  1835.  A  fever  of  speculation  ran  through  the 
South,  twenty  million  acres  were  planted  to  cotton  before 
1840,  and  the  financial  resources  of  the  ''ountry  were 

V 


Martineau, 
Society  in 
America,  I, 
307. 

Martineau, 
I,  jgi. 


Phillips. 
n,  55-75. 


Ballai;h. 
Tariff  and 
P.sWir 
Lan(U. 


2IO 


Hamfflond. 
Ch  II,  III 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


seriously  taxed.  The  initial  cost  of  the  land  was  slight, 
seldom  nore  than  $s  an  acre,  and  although  stocking  the 
plantation  with  slaves  and  implements  involved  heavy 
outlays,  the  venture  was  almost  certain  to  be  remunerative. 
The  return  from  crop  sales  mounted  into  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands annually,  and  good  cotton  lands  brought  $1500  per 
acre  in  the  open  market.  A  sugar  plantation  m  Louisiana 
was  a  speculative  investment,  no  less  alluring  and  profitable. 
Throughout  the  Gulf  states  aU  labor  was  relegated  to 
slave-  and  the  social  order  was  as  aristocratic  as  on  the 
seaboard.  The  typical  planter  of  the  Mississippi  low- 
lands counted  his  slaves  by  hundreds  and  his  acres  by 
thousands.  In  the  uplands  six  hundred  acres  and  fifty 
slaves  were  a  more  economical  unit,  while  in  the  western 
foothUls  of  the  Appalachians,  where  com,  wheat,  and 
cattle  were  the  staple  products,  a  farmer  was  content  with 
a  hundred  acres  and  a  dozen  slaves,  or  might  be  reduced 
to  the  necessity  of  laboring  with  his  own  hands. 

The  expansion  of  the  South  was  determined  by  the  spread 
of  cotton  culture.    The  denser  population  areas  coincided 
with  the  "  black  belt"  of  rich  calcareous  loam  that  clothed 
the  foothills  of  the  Appalachians  from  Virginia  south  to 
the  Gulf  states  and  thence  west  across  the  bottom  lands  of 
the  Mississippi  into  eastern  Texas.    As  the  plantations 
of  t'le  older  states  degenerated,  new  lands  were  claimed 
and  cleared,  and  the  region  cultivated  to  cotton  gradually 
extended  westward  to  the  confines  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase.   The  Mexican  boundary  and  the  Missouri  com- 
promise line  imposed  an  arbitrary  limit  to  the  domain  of 
King  Cotton,  but  the  great  staple  in  its  onward  march 
showed    small     respect    for    political    barriers.    Cotton 
planters  from  the  Gulf  states  began  carrying  their  slaves 
across  the  border  to  the  valley  lands  along  the  Sabine, 
Brazos,  and  Colorado  rivers  long  before  the  annexation 

of  Texas. 

Cotton  and  Slavery,  —  The  cotton  plantations  offered 
ideal  conditi.ms  for  slave  labor.  The  hands  could  be 
massed  under  the  eye  of  the  overseer  to  a  degree  quite 


i?     f' 


I  'I! 


■    I 


'f^W 


Industrial  Expansion  and  tlte  Crisis  of  1837     211 


impracticable  in  the  growing  of  com  or  wheat  or  hay. 
Moreover,  at  several  stages  in  the  development  of  the  plant, 
all  the  laborers  on  the  place  could  be  utilized.  In  hoeing, 
picking,  and  chopping  seasons,  women  and  children  and 
white-haired  "  uncles  "  were  as  efficient  as  able-bodied  men. 
The  cost  of  maintenance  was  low,  since  the  slave  rations, 
corn  and  pork  and  sweet  potatoes,  might  be  grown  on  the 
place,  and  the  slave  quarters  were  usually  built  by  slave 
carpenters  out  of  lumber  from  the  freshly  cleared  land. 
The  actual  money  expenditure  need  not  average  more  than 
$15  per  year  for  each  man,  woman,  or  child  on  the  planta- 
tion. On  the  "  dead  lands  "  of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and 
Kentucky  slave  labor  had  ceased  to  be  profitable,  but  the 
cotton  belt  furnished  a  ready  market  for  Uie  surplus  negroes 
of  the  border  states.  Prices  rose  as  the  demand  increased. 
In  1790  the  best  field  hand  brought  but  Sr^oo.  In  1815 
the  price  of  an  average  hand  was  $250.  The  price  rose 
to  $500  in  1840,  $1000  in  1850,  and  from  $1400  to  $2000 
in  i860. 

When  negroes  brought  such  prices,  the  temptation  to 
import  in  defiance  of  law  was  too  great  to  be  withstood. 
Slavers,  fitted  out  in  New  York  and  New  Orleans,  Boston 
and  Portland,  were  engaged  in  carrying  kidnaped  Afri- 
cans to  Brazil,  Mexico,  and  Cuba,  whence  numbers  were 
smuggled  into  the  United  States. 

Because  of  its  low-grade  labor,  the  South  was  committed 
to  agriculture.  Manufacturing  machinery  could  not  be 
manipulated  by  ignorant  slaves,  and  the  capital  requisite 
for  factories  and  foundries  was  absorbed  by  the  equip- 
ment of  plantations.  The  incentives  to  city  building 
were  few  and  the  urban  population  increased  but  slowly. 
In  1840  there  were  three  times  as  many  towns  of  over 
eight  thousand  inhabitants  in  the  North  as  in  the  South. 
Of  dties  boasting  more  than  twenty  thousand  there  were 
eleven  in  the  North  and  but  five  in  the  South.  Of  these 
five,  Washington,  Baltimore,  and  Louisville  were  hardly 
to  be  reckoned  as  Southern  from  the  industrial  point  of 
view,  and  New  Orleans  owed  its  development  to  pecuUar 


Kemble, 
Residence  on 
a  Georgia 
Plantation. 

De  Bow, 
Ind.  Re- 
sources of 
Southern  and 
Western 
States, 
I,  150- 

Olmstead, 
The  Cotton 
Kingdom, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 

De  Bow, 
I.  I7S. 

Hammond, 
SI- 


Du  Bois, 
Suppression 
of  the  Slave 
Trade, 
Chs.  X,  XI. 

Twentieth 
Rept.  Am. 
Anti-Slaveiy 
Society, 
13-30. 


<  ! 


i 


212 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Martineau, 
I,  336. 

Birbeck, 
Si.Sj,  82-83 


Flint,  Rec- 
ollections 
of  Ten 
Years, 

lOI-III. 

Birbeck, 
102-10S, 


commercial  advantages.  The  prosperity  of  Southern 
cities  was  largely  conditioned  on  the  cotton  trade. 
Charieston,  Savannah,  Hamburg,  Natchez,  New  Orieans, 
were  situated  or  harbors  or  navigable  nvers  that  gave 
access  to  the  plantations.  Not  factories  and  workshops, 
but  cotton  presses  and  warehouses  filled  the  business 
quarters.  The  entrepreneurs  were  cotton  factors  who 
bought  the  cotton  sent  down  river  by  the  planters,  and 
sold  on  commission  to  the  brokers  of  New  York   and 

London.  ,      ,        ^     . 

Free  Ubor  and  Enterprise.  -  In  the  free  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  River,  the  quarter  section  farm  tiUed 
by  the  owner  and  his  sons  was  the  typical  enterprise,  but 
the  prospects  of  the  thrifty  pioneer  were  no  less  bnlhant. 
Miss  Martineau  was  assured  that  "  a  settler  cannot  fail 
of  success,  if  he  takes  good  land,  in  a  healthy  situation, 
at  the  government  price.  If  he  bestows  moderate  paiM 
on  his  lot,  he  may  confidently  reckon  on  its  being  worth 
at  least  double  at  the  end  of  the  year;  much  more  if 
there  are  growing  probabiUties  of  a  market."  Cultivated 
land  in  Illinois  was  then  seUiiig  at  $30  or  even  $100  per 

The  cotton  and  sugar  plantations  of  the  Gulf  states 
furnished  a  steady  •...id  paying  market  for  the  food  supphes 
and  agricultural  implements  of  which  the  farmers  of  the 
Ohio  Valley  and  the  iron  masters  of  the  Alleghanies  were 
quick   to   take   advantage.    The   Mississippi   and  Ohio 
rivers  formed  the  great  highway  that  connected  North 
and  South.    Scows  and  flatboats  laden  with  flour  and  salt 
meat,  hogs  and  mules,  plows  and  cotton  gins,  floated  on 
the  spring  floods  down  the  tributary  streams,  the  Alle- 
gheny and   Monongahela,  the  MusWngum,  Scioto,  and 
Wabash,  the  Cumberiand  and  the  Tennessee,  manned 
by  young  countrymen  eager  for  adventure.    At  St.  Louis, 
at  Natchez,  and  at  New  Orleans,  where  these  farmer  mer- 
chants hoped  to  dispose  of  their  stock  in  trade,  the  anchored 
craft  lined  the  waterfront.     Many  a  cargo  was  sold  jier- 
force  at  less  than  cost,  and  many  a  boat  was  wrecked  on 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  1837     213 


the  snags  and  shoals  of  the  treacherous  rivers ;  but  there 
was  always  the  chance  of  a  lucky  sale,  and  the  South  held 
out  golden  hopes  to  the  man  of  pluck  and  resource. 
Many  a  thrifty  emigrant  brought  a  wagon  load  of 
"  Yankee  notions  "  across  the  mountains  and,  arrived  at 
Pittsburg  or  Wheeling,  set  up  shop  in  his  keel  boat  and 
traded  from  settlement  to  settlement  as  he  floated  down 
the  river.  But  the  resourceful  pioneers  soon  began  to 
manufacture  for  themselves.  Wherever  the  Ohio  River 
furnished  pwwer,  mills  were  set  up  to  furnish  the  goods 
that  were  too  bulky  or  too  breakable  to  be  freighted 
across  the  mountains.  At  Beaver  Creek  (1821)  were 
saw  and  gristmills,  fulling  and  carding  mills,  besides  an 
iron  furnace,  a  forge  and  a  flaxseed  grinder;  at  Mays- 
ville  there  was  a  rope- walk  and  a  glass  factory;  Paris 
boasted  a  cotton  mill,while  Cincinnati  vied  with  Pittsburg 
in  its  output,  having  a  foundry'  and  a  nailcutting  ma- 
chine, a  steam  gristmill,  woolen  and  cotton  mills,  a  tan- 
nery, a  glass  factory,  white-lead  works,  and  a  shipyard 
where  steamers  were  built. 

The  Cl^mont's  successful  trip  on  the  Hudson  (1807) 
had  revolutionized  river  navigation  in  the  interior.  Steam 
rapidly  superseded  oar  and  sail  and  greatly  reduced 
the  time  and  cost  of  water  transportation.  A  line  of 
steamboats  had  been  established  on  the  Hudson  in  1808 
and  on  the  Ohio  in  181 1.  The  first  steamer  ran  from 
Pittsburg  to  New  Orleans  in  181 2.  Timothy  Flint,  who 
went  down  the  Ohio  in  1818,  estimated  that  the  steamers 
had  thrown  ten  thousand  flatboats  and  keel  boats  out  of 
employment. 

In  the  first  fifty  years  of  our  national  history  the  growth 
of  population,  both  by  natural  increase  and  by  immigration, 
had  been  phenomenal.  The  most  rapid  advances  were 
made  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  five  thousand  settlers 
north  of  the  Ohio  in  1790  increased  to  three  million  in  the 
next  fifty  years,  and  the  population  of  the  states  south  of 
the  Ohio  had  multiplied  three  hundred  times  in  the  same 
interval. 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions, 13-37. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America,  314. 

Chevalier, 

I03-1Q5. 
200-204. 


Chevalier, 
212-2J4. 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions. 16. 


McMaster, 

III.  4S»-49S; 

IV,  Ch. 
XXIII. 


I) 


IH 


i: 


!t  ■ 


Pa 


■  is  'ii  u 

\  5-       . 


214      Indus f rial  History  of  the  United  States 


Per  Cent  of  Increase  of  Total  and  Urban  Popula- 
tion BY  Decades 


U.S.  Censtis, 
igoo,     I, 

Decade 

U.S. 

N.  Atl. 

S.  Alt. 

N.Cent. 

S.  CXNT. 

Urban 

XXIV-XXV. 

1 790-1800 
1800-1810 
1810-1820 
1820-1830 
1830-1840 

35-1 
36.4 
33--^ 
33-5 
32-7 

33-9 
32-3 
25.0 

27.1 
22.0 

23s 
17.0 
14.4 
19.1 
7-7 

474-8 

I93-I 

87.4 

108.1 

206.7 
I34-I 

73-0 
Si-8 
46.7 

60.S 
693 
33-1 
82.0 
68.2 

Kettell, 
Southern 
Wealth  and 
Northern 
Profits,  Ch. 

II,  III,  rv. 


The  figures  indicate  a  general  westward  movement  of  the 
population  from  the  overcrowded  districts  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  to  the  new  lands  of  the  North  and  South  Central 
divisions.  The  westward  movement  still  followed  the  river 
courses.  The  valleys  of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland,  and 
the  Tennessee  were  first  taken  up,  and  by  the  fourth  dec- 
ade of  the  nineteenth  century,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and 
Ohio  were  fully  occupied  by  a  farming  population.  With 
occasional  intervals,  the  lands  along  both  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  River  from  Prairie  du  Chien  to  New  Orleans 
had  been  made  over  to  settlers,  while  population  had  crept 
up  the  Missouri  River  to  its  junction  with  Kansas,  up  the 
Arkansas  River  to  Fort  Smith,  and  up  the  Red  River  to 
the  Mexican  boundary.  The  navigable  streams  flowing 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  —  the  Pearl,  Tombigbee,  Alabama, 
and  Chattahoochee  —  furnished  the  sole  means  of  getting 
cotton  to  market,  and  so  determined  the  course  of  settle- 
ment. Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario  were  a  no  less  important 
transportation  medium  to  the  wheat  farmers  of  northern 
New  York  and  Ohio. 

Internal  Commerce.  —  The  period  of  isolation  and 
enforced  self-sufficiency  was  at  an  end.  Southern  planters 
could  ship  their  cotton  and  sugar  from  their  river  wharves 
to  New  Orleans  or  Mobile  where  the  season's  crop  was 
bought  up  by  a  factor  and  loaded  on  to  a  sea-going  vessel 
for  delivery  at  New  York  or  Liverpool.  The  staple  crops 
were  so  profitable  that  no  land  or  labor  could  be  spared 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  i8jy     215 


for  the  growing  of  wheat  and  corn.  Plantation  supplies, 
flour  and  pork  ard  whisky,  were  produced  by  the  farmers 
of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  the  Lake  region  and  dispatched 
down  the  Mississippi  to  the  river  towns  for  the  xise  of  the 
prodigal  planters.  Cotton,  the  "  money  crop "  of  the 
South,  brought  in  $1,000,000,000  in  twenty  years,  but  this 
vast  revenue  was  not  expended  at  home.  It  was  distrib- 
uted to  the  cotton  factors  and  shipmasters  of  the  North 
and  Great  Britain,  to  the  farmers  of  the  "  Western  Coun- 
try," to  the  ironmongers  of  Pittsburg,  to  the  manufac- 
turers of  New  England.  The  cotton  crop  enriched  every 
section  of  the  country  except  the  cotton  belt.  It  set  in 
motion  a  system  of  internal  commerce  which  promoted  the 
prosperity  of  the  United  States  more  than  any  othe  single 
cause. 

In  the  twenty  years  from  181 5  to  1835,  there  was  de- 
veloped a  territorial  division  of  labor  that  seemed  to  be 
extraordinarily  profitable  to  all  the  participants.  The 
planters  of  the  Gulf  states  from  Georgia  to  Texas,  with 
the  exception  of  southern  Louisiana,  were  absorbed  in  the 
growing  of  the  staple  export.  The  farmers  of  the  Middle 
West,  from  Tennessee  to  the  Lakes,  were  engaged  in  gxow- 
ing  the  grain,  wool,  and  tobacco  required  by  their  ntlgi.- 
bors  to  the  south  and  east.  New  England,  New  York, 
and  Pennsylvania  were  content  to  manufacture  the  cot- 
tons, woolens,  and  iron  utensils  for  which  their  water 
power  and  transportation  facilities  gave  then  distinct 
advantage,  relying  on  the  markets  of  the  West  and 
South.  The  south  Atlantic  states,  unable  to  raise  tobacco 
or  cotton  or  cereals  on  their  exhausted  lands,  found  am- 
ple compensation  in  the  growing  demand  for  slaves  in  the 
new  South  beyond  the  Appalachians.  Slaves  were  driven 
over  land  to  New  Orleans  from  Virginia  and  Maryland 
by  the  tens  of  thousands  every  year. 

Means  of  transportation  were  at  hand  in  the  vast 
system  of  lakes  and  rivers  that  brought  the  remotest 
sections  of  the  great  interior  valley  into  communication 
with  the  sea.    The  Great  Lakes  were  inland  seas,  while 


Callender, 
Ch.  VII. 


De  Bow,  I, 

445-446. 


Lambert,  II, 

146-151, 

346-348. 


Collins, 
Domestic 
Slave  Trade, 
Ch.  II,  III. 


Chevalier, 
Letter  XXI. 


-  T  f» 


II   'If 


1-  i 


^    ' 


lii; 


'I  I 


216      /ndustrial  History  of  the  United  States 

De  Bow  the  Mk  issippi  River  and  its  tributaries  furnished  16,674 
11.445-446.  miles  of  steamboat  navigation.  The  tonnage  capac- 
ity of  the  Lake  steamers  was  estimated  at  100,000, 
and  the  population  served  at  3,000,000  ((846).  The 
tonnage  of  the  river  steamers  was  reckoned  to  be  250,000 
and  that  of  the  scows  and  flatboats  300,000,  and  the  popu- 
lation served  as  6,576,000.  The  net  money  revenues  from 
the  commerce  of  the  interior,  freight,  and  passengers 
amounted  to  $246,774,635  (1846),  and  the  number  of  saUors 
and  boatmen  employed  was  at  least  32,000. 

Direct  communication  between  the  Atlantic  states  and 
the  interior  was  far  more  difficult.    Except  by  wa>  of  the 
divides  cut  by  the  Mohawk  and  Potomac  rivers,  post  roads 
were  costly  and  freight  charges  prohibitive.    The  project 
of  artificial  waterways  had  been  broached  early  ui  the 
century.    In  1810  Peter  Buell  Porter,  a  Congressman  from 
western  New  Yor .,  advocated  the  appropriation  of  some 
portion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  state  land  sales  to  the  build- 
mg  of  a  canal  along  the  Mohawk  to  Buffalo  and  by  way 
of  the  Allegheny  River  to  Pittsburg  in  order  that  the  salt 
manufactured  at  Syracuse  might  have  a  cheaper  outlet. 
He  urged  that  the  price  of  this  necessity  would  be  reduced 
to  consumers  by  fifty  per  cent.    Salt  was  then  seUing  at 
the  works  for  twenty  and  thirty-five  cents  per  bushel, 
while  at  Pittsburg  it  brought  $2  per  bushel  because  of  the 
cost  of  carriage.    Porter  further  urged  the  extension  of 
Holmes,         water  communication  from  Syracuse  to  Lake  Ontario  via 
Ch.  IX.         Oswego  River,  and  canal  connection  between  Lake  Ene 
and  the  Ohio  via  the  Muskingum  River.    Wheat  from  the 
interior,  then  selUng  at  fifty  cents  a  bushel,  would  rise  to 
$1  if  the  cost  of  transportation  to  New  York  and  New 
Orleans  was  thus  reduced. 


1i 


;li  h 


Internal  Improvements. 

Canals.  —  The  post  roads  built  at  so  much  cost  across 
the  mountains  and  through  the  wilderness  had  greatly 


i' 


j  i 


f  i 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  18 ^f     217 


facilitated  emigration,  but  could  not  serve  the  purposes 
of  traffic.  Most  Western  rivers  furnished  but  uncertain 
and  hazardous  avenues  of  trade;  and  it  was  of  prime  im- 
portance that  the  feasible  waterways  should  be  connected 
by  canals  if  the  products  of  Western  agriculture  were  to 
reach  Eastern  markets.  The  first  great  enterprise  of  th-.s 
character  was  the  Erie  Canal,  undertaken  and  brought 
to  successful  completion  by  certain  public-spirited  citizens 
of  New  York  City  (1817-1825).  This  costly  transporta-  Hulbcrt, 
tion  system  was  carried  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  through  p^^'.^TJ' 
the  break  in  the  Alleghany  Range  made  by  the  Mohawk 
River.  It  followed  the  Mohawk  to  Rome,  and  thence, 
utilizing  the  water  of  numerous  small  lakes  and  streams, 
entered  Lake  Erie  by  the  Tonawanda  and  Niagara  rivers. 
The  shorter  route,  via  the  Oswego  to  Lake  Ontario,  was 
urged,  but  this  p.  .1  would  have  di\erted  traffic  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  Montreal.  The  project  of  a  cana.  around 
Niagara  Falls  failed  to  secure  support  for  the  same  reason. 
The  Erie  Canal  was  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  miles  Censu^ 
in  length  and  the  cost  of  building  averaged  $20,000  jier  •'*^'  ^^• 
mile,  but  the  tolls  of  the  first  nine  years'  use  amounted  to  canBls"'i-34. 
$8,500,000,  and  more  than  covered  the  initial  expenditure. 
The  enterprise  paid  running  exiK-nses  from  the  start,  and 
the  projectors  were  abundantly  justifitd  in  their  venture, 
but  ihe  secondary  advantages  to  the  state  were  far  greater. 
Branch  canals  connetted  the  main  trunk  with  Ontario, 
Champlain,  and  Seneca  lakes.  The  freightage  on  a  ton  of 
goods  by  wagon  road  was  $32  for  a  hundred  miles;  by 
canal  the  same  distance  ctist  $1  {wr  ton.  '1  ne  produce  WaKtwancl 
of  the  lake  region  |)oured  down  this  channel  to  the  sea,  and  '"''"  ''"•  -*'''" 
wealth  and  population  grew  by  leaps  and  Iwunds.  The 
villages  of  Syracuse,  Rochester,  and  Buffalo  wa.xod  thriv- 
ing towns,  and  New  York  City  became  the  leading  port 
of  the  United  States.  From  Chicago  to  the  sea  via  the 
Mississippi  and  New  Orleans  was  sixteen  hundred  miles, 
from  Chicago  to  Montreal  by  way  of  the  lakes  and  the  St. 
Lawrence  measured  the  same  distance,  while  the  route  to 
New  York  by  the  Erie  Canal  was  but  twelve  h'.iiuhcd 


ll 


Hi. 


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2i8      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


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■  I 


),!!! 


if 


Hi 
It' 


ji 


Hulbeit, 
Great  Am. 
Canals,  I, 
Ch.  IV. 


U.  S.  Census, 
1880,  IV, 
Rept.  on 
Canals,  6-8. 

Chevalier, 
Letter  XXI. 


Roberts. 
Anthratiie 
Coal  Indus- 
try, Ch.  IV. 


miles.  The  problem  proposed  by  Washington  was  solved. 
The  industrial  and  political  allegiance  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi Valley  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard  was  determined  by 
the  opening  of  this  commercial  highway  between  the  two 
sections. 

The  Erie  Canal  threatened  to  deprive  Philadelphia  of 
the  major  part  of  her  Western  trade.    To  keep  her  hold  on 
Pittsburg  and  the  Ohio  Valley,  Pennsylvania  undertook 
(1826)  to  construct  a  system  of  canals  and  portages  from 
Philadelphia  to    Pittsburg,   following  the  Susquehanna, 
Juniata,  Conemaugh,  Kiskiminetis,  and  Allegheny  rivers. 
Connection  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna 
was  made  by  a  horse  railroad,  while  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  rang-  between  Hollidaysburg  and  Johnstown 
was  crossed  by  the  Alleghany  Portage  Railway,  a  series 
of  inclined  planes  over  which  the  boats,  placed  on  wheeled 
cars,  were  drawn  by  stationary  engines.    This  transporta- 
tion system  was  complete  by  1834.    In  October  of  that 
year  the  keel  boat.  Hit  atui  Miss,  made  the  trip  from  the 
Lackawanna  down  the  Susquehanna  to  Columbia,  and  up 
the  canal  to  Hollidaysburg.    There  the  owner  expected 
to  sell  his  boat  and  transport  his  goods  by  wagon  road; 
but  boat  end  cargo  were  transferred  to  the  incline  railway 
and  successfully  freighted  to  the  western  division  of  the 
canal,  thence  the  astonished  navigator  pursued  the  water 
route  to  Pittsburg  and   St.  Louis.    A  rush  of  business 
poured  along  the  new  highway  to  the  West,  and  the  Portage 
Railway  was  overwhelmed  with  trafcc  so  that  the  wagon 
road  was  in  constant  requisition.    Notwithstanding  this 
disadvantage,  the  Pennsylvania  Canal  was  a  successful 
rival  of  the  Erie,  and  Philadelphia  was  able  to  hold  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  commerce  with  the  interior.    The 
total  cost  of  this  transportation  system.  $10,038,133,  was 
met  by  the  state  of  Pennsylvania. 

A  promising  venture  for  private  transportation  com- 
panies wa?  offered  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  The  an- 
thracite Ciia!  district  lav  in  the  mountain  valleys  where 
rise  the  Susquehanna  and  Lackawanna,  the  Schuylkill, 


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Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iS;^j     219 


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KAItl.Y 
I'OST  |{0/tl>H 
AND  CANALS 

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220      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


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Morris,  In- 
ternal Im- 
provements 
in  Ohio. 


the  Lehigh,  and  the  Lackawaxen.  So  bulky  a  commodity 
as  coal  could  be  transported  only  by  water.  None  of  the 
rivers,  not  even  the  Susquehanna,  furnished  sufficient 
current,  except  during  floods,  to  float  coal  barges  to  the 
ports.  Within  five  years  of  the  day  when  "  stone  coal  " 
was  successfully  used  in  the  Philadelphia  iron  works,  a 
canal  was  built  (1828)  connecting  the  Wyoming  district 
with  the  Delaware  by  way  of  the  Lackawaxen,  and  canals 
along  the  Lehigh,  Schuylkill,  and  Susquehanna  were  built 
about  the  same  time.  New  Jersey  put  through  the  Dela- 
ware and  Raritan  Canal  (1834-183S)  at  a  cost  of  $4,735r 
353.  The  ship  canal  between  Chesapeake  and  Delaware 
bays  was  a  more  difficult  enterprise,  because  it  must  be 
cut  through  solid  rock,  and  neither  Delaware  nor  Mary- 
land would  assume  the  task.  It  was  begun  under  private 
auspices,  but  in  1806-1807  the  directors  appealed  to  Con- 
gress for  aid,  arguing  that  such  a  waterway  would  have 
national  importance.  The  appropriation  recommended 
by  Secretary  Gallatin  was  not  made  until  1825,  when  the 
United  States  subscribed  to  $300,000  stock  in  the  company. 
The  total  cost  was  $3,730,230. 

A  transportation  system  built  through  a  populous  section, 
or  along  a  well-defmed  trade  route,  is  assured  from  the 
start ;  but  when  a  canal  is  carried  through  a  thinly  settled 
country,  dividends  must  wait  till  business  develops,  and 
bondholders  are  likely  to  lose  both  interest  and  principal. 
Private  capital  was  thereftire  shy  of  such  investments  in 
the  new  West,  but  the  state  legislatures  did  not  hesitate 
to  appru[)riate  considerable  sums  of  public  money  in  aid 
of  canal  projects.  Thus  the  Miami  Canal  was  built  ( i82()) 
from  Cincinnati  to  Dayton,  and  the  Ohio  Canal  provided 
water  communication  between  Lake  Krie  and  the  Ohio 
River  along  the  route  first  suggested  by  Washington,  up 
the  Cuyahoga  and  down  the  Tuscarawas  to  the  Muskingum 
and  the  Scioto.     Such  ent('q)rises  proved  ttx)  heavy  a  tax 

nccr  community,  and  tho  ■Jt.^.tes 


on  the  resource^  -^f  l.  y 

appealed  for  national  aid.     Congress  had  already  provided 

for  the  building  of  the  National  Road  through  the  Western 


^j«wswiap5K9CTr?S!afcr- .- 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  1837     221 

territory  out  of  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  public  lands,  and 
this  inexpensive  method  of  meeting  the  cost  of  construction 
was  now  applied  to  canals.  A  percentage  of  land  sales, 
or  the  lands  themselves,  were  made  over  to  the  state 
authorities  and  by  them  applied  to  transportation  projects. 
Under  this  plan  the  Western  states  undertook  a  vast  net- 
work of  internal  improvements;  the  post  roads  from 
Columbus  to  Sandusky,  and  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Ohio  River,  were  built  from  the  proceeds  of  land  grants, 
and,  so  aided,  Ohio,  in  cooperation  with  Indiana,  con- 
structed the  Wabash  and  Erie  Canal.  The  surplus  revenue 
distributed  by  the  Federal  government  in  1837  was  applied 
by  the  Western  states  to  transportation  facilities.  Antici- 
pating great  commercial  gains,  municipalities  made  extrava- 
gant contributions  to  canal  stock,  speculators  subscribed 
far  beyond  their  means,  and  bank  credits  were  strained 
to  the  danger  point  in  the  zeal  for  industrial  development. 
By  1837  $100,000,000  had  been  sunk  in  canals.  The  in- 
vestors found  that  they  had  buried  their  money  in  locks 
and  waterworks,  and  that  no  adequate  return  could  be  ex- 
pected until  the  country  had  grown  up  to  the  transporta- 
tion system. 

The  Southern  states  undertook  far  less  in  the  way  of 
internal  improvements.  Virginia  in  1828  completed  the 
Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  an  enterprise  set  on  foot  in  Wash- 
ington's day,  and  began  a  waterway  along  the  James  River 
through  the  Gap  of  the  Blue  Ridge  into  the  Great  Valley. 
South  Carolina  opened  communication  from  the  Santee 
River  to  Charleston  Harbor  by  a  canal  twenty-one  miles 
in  length,  and  New  Orleans  cut  a  ship  channel  between 
Lake  Pontchartrain  and  the  Mississippi,  while  the  enter- 
prising citizens  of  Kentucky  undertook  a  canal  around  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio.  This  last  was  only  three  miles  in  length, 
!)ul  wide  and  deep  enough  to  admit  boats  of  one  hundred 
tuns  burthen. 
Washington's  contention  that  Virginia  should  maintain 

uiul  the  Monongahela  had  borne  fruit   in  the  Potomac 


Benton, 
Wabash 
Trade  Route. 


Writings  of 
Washington, 
X,  381-384. 


Hiilbert, 
Great  Aia. 
Canals,  I, 
Chs.  II.  m. 


■Jti^Y 


J 


222 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


\  !;• 


I  !<! 


Ward, 
Chesapeake 
and  Ohio 
Canal. 


i  ,' 


Lardner, 
Ch.  I. 


Hadley. 
RailroL'.d 
'rransiM)rta- 
tion,  Ch.  II. 

Ailam.~. 
Kailroails, 

1    79- 

Hulhcrt, 
(IriMt  .\m. 
Canals, 
I,   17')    '*•'■ 


Company,  which  spent  $729,380  i"  forty  years  on  improv- 
ing the  river  bed,  but  accomplished  nothing  of  permanent 
utility     The  success  of  the  Erie  Canal  determmed  the 
state  to  charter  (1825)  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Company, 
authorized  to  raise  a  capital  of  $6,000,000  for  the  building 
of  a  canal  from  Georgetown  to  Cumberland  and  thence  by 
tunnel  across  the  range  to  the  Youghiogheny.    The  canal  was 
not  carried  more  than  half  this  distance,  but  its  ultimate 
cost  was  $11,000,000,  of  which  $7,000,000  was  contributed 
by  the  state  of  Maryland,  $1,500,000  by  the  terminal 
cities,  and  $1,000,000  by  the  United  States  government. 
The  route  beyond  Harpers  Ferry  was  very  difficult,  raising 
the  average  cost  of  construction  to  $59,618  per  mile,  and 
the  promoters  became  discouraged.    The  progress  of  this 
enterprise  was  delayed  by  the  appearance  of  a  dangerous 
rival,  the  steam  railway.     Baltimore  gave  her  support  to 
the   new   transportation   agency,   and   her   citizens   sub- 
scribed liberally  to  the  stock  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad.    Railway   and  canal   were  built   contempora- 
neously along  the  same  general  route  as  far  as  Cumberiand, 
and  there  the  canal  stopped;    but  the  railroad  easily 
mounted  the  divide  and  made  it  possible  to  carry  freight 
and  passengers  directly  to  the  Ohio  and  beyond. 

Railroads.  -  Canal  traffic  was  safe  and  cheap,  but  slow 
and  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  slack  water,  floods,  or  frost 
The  Erie  Canal,  for  example,  freezes  over  in  winter,  and 
navigaaon  is  stopped  for  from  four  to  f\ve  months  in  the 
year  A  railroad  can  be  built  through  mountainous  country 
at  one  third  the  cost  of  a  canal,  and  over  heights  to  which 
water  cannot  be  conducted.  \  car  run  on  wheels  titted 
to  the  iron  track  encounters  less  friction  than  a  wagon  on 
a  turnpikr   less  resistance  than  a  boat  in  water. 

The  firs  -ailroads  were  built  to  supplement  the  canal 
cvstem  a^  .He  ship  railwav  from  Hollidaysburg  to  Johns- 
tmvn  the  Mauch  Chunk  extension  of  the  Lehigh  Canal, 
the   Delaware  and   Hudson   Canal   Company's  tramway 

_      .  1    1       .        u    l.,l«        Pare    !(>'>flt*'"l    witn    roal 

from  Cari»)iUialo  in  HiHitMiair.     ^.ar^  "-'-^ '^- 

and  stone  were  drawn  over  these  iron  tracks  by  stationary 


E^«l.. 


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Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  i8jy     223 


engines,  horse  f)ower,  and  even  sails.  The  first  locomotive 
was  imported  from  England  by  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Company  in  1829,  but  it  proved  impracticable  because  the 
track  had  not  been  built  for  so  heavy  a  weight. 

After  diverse  experiments,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
management  chose  steam  as  the  most  practicable  motor 
(1831).  Peter  Cooper's  engine,  the  "  Tom  Thumb," 
made  the  trial  trip  over  the  thirteen  miles  of  track  between 
Baltimore  and  Ellicott's  Mills  in  one  hour.  In  the  same 
autumn,  several  trips  were  made  over  the  South  Carolina 
Railroad  from  Charleston  to  Hamburg.  The  "  Best 
Friend  "  ran  from  sixteen  to  twenty-one  miles  an  hour  with 
five  loaded  cars  attached;  without  the  cars,  the  speed 
attained  was  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  miles  an  hour. 
The  following  year  the  "  De  Witt  Clinton  "  made  a  trial 
trip  on  the  railroad  then  building  up  the  Mohawk  Valley, 
and  covered  the  seventeen  miles  from  .\lbany  to  Schenec- 
tady in  one  hour.  On  the  occasion  of  the  formal  opening 
of  this  line,  the  legislators  then  assembled  at  Albany  were 
conveyed  to  Schenectady  and  there  dined  in  state.  One 
of  the  toasts  voiced  a  daring  prophecy.  "  The  BufTalo 
Railroad,  —  May  we  soon  breakfast  in  Utica,  dine  in 
Rochester,  and  sup  with  our  friends  on  Lake  Erie !  "  The 
journey  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  by  swiftest  packet  boat 
required  at  that  time  three  or  four  days. 

Speed  is  an  all-important  consideration  in  the  trans- 
portation of  passengers  and  perishable  freight.  Therefore 
public-spirited  citizens  and  enterprising  communities 
made  haste  to  introduce  railroad  connections  and  so  to 
reap  the  first  fruits  of  the  new  transportation  system.  The 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  line  was  rapidly  pushed  up  the  Poto- 
mac Valley  and  was  completed  to  Cumberland  in  1835, 
but  the  crossing  of  the  Alleghany  Range  and  connection 
with  the  Ohio  was  not  attained  till  1853. 

Railroads  were  intended  originally  to  further  water  trans- 
portation. The  aim  was  to  freight  the  products  of  the  in- 
terior to  the  ports,  as  is  evident  in  the  three  lines  radiating 
from  Boston  to  Lowell,  Worcester,  and  Providence,  and 


Reizenstein, 
Baltimore 
and  Ohio 
Railroad. 

Lardner, 
Steam  En- 
gine. 


Brown, 
First  Ix)co- 
motives  in 
Am.,  Ch. 
XV,  XVII, 
XX-XXIII, 
XXVII- 
XXIX. 


Lardner, 
327-348. 
De  Bow, 
II,  461-463. 


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224     Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


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Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  183J    225 

in  the  short  lines  running  ur>  country  from  New  Haven,  Chevalier, 
Bridgeport,  and  New  York.  Other  roads  were  intended  ^^"^"^  ^^^• 
to  make  connection  between  water  routes:  witness  the 
line  from  Boston  to  Providence  (whence  passengers  took 
steamer  to  New  York),  the  two  rival  lines  across  New 
Jersey,  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington  and  Baltimore,  and 
the  Great  Southern  Railway.  Before  the  close  of  the  first 
decade  of  railroad  building,  a  series  of  connecting  lines 
covered  the  thousand  miles  between  Portland,  Maine,  and 
Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  following  the  direction  of 
the  Hartford  Trail,  the  King's  Path,  and  the  eariy  post 
roads,  so  tJiat  passengers  and  shippers  might  choose  betwe>.  ^ 
railway  transportation  and  the  slower  but  cheaper  steamers. 
Traffic  on  Lake  Erie  was  supplemented  by  short  lines 
built  inland  from  Sandusky,  Toledo,  and  Detroit  before 
1840.  In  the  next  decade  connection  between  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Ohio  River  was  made  by  the  Cincinnati  and  San- 
dusky, and  the  Detroit  and  Ann  Arbor  Railway  was  carried 
through  to  Lake  Michigan  to  avoid  a  long  and  circuitous 
voyage. 


Commercial  Development 

The  Coastwise  Trade.  —  With  the  development  of  the 
interior,  domestic  commerce  increased  in  volume  until  it 
had  become  a  far  more  important  factor  in  the  nation's 
prosperity  than  the  transatlantic.  The  vessels  engaged 
in  the  coastwise  trade  multiplied  year  by  year.  The  ton- 
nage so  enrolled  was  516,086  in  1831,  by  1840  the  million 
mark  was  reached,  and  this  figure  was  doubled  and  trelilcd 
in  the  next  twenty  years.  Steamships  were  introduced 
in  the  coasting  service  in  1823,  when  a  steamer  plied  reg- 
ularly between  Boston  and  the  Kennebec  River,  and  a 
line  was  soon  after  established  between  New  York  and  the 
Southern  ports.  Sharp  competition  between  steam  and 
sail  ensued.  The  average  speed  of  the  coast  steamers, 
ten  miles  an  hour,  might  easily  be  surpassed  by  a  schooner 
with  a  favorable  wind,  and  fast-sailing  barkentines  and 


Marvin, 
363-375- 


226      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


u 


li, 


lli|! 


I 


m 

W 


i- 


Marvin, 
395-402. 


Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
3»  1-325- 


Dc  Bow, 
II.  458. 


brigantines  of  enlarged  hold  capacity  were  devised  to  meet 
the  rival  motor  power.  Having  no  coal  bills  to  pay,  the 
sailing  vessels  could  offer  lower  rates  and  so  manage  to 
hold  their  own  in  the  bulky  freight  traffic.  They  con- 
tinued to  carry  the  major  part  of  the  coal,  wood,  and  iron 
manufactures  shipped  from  Northern  ports  in  exchange 
for  the  cotton,  sugar,  and  hard  timber  of  the  South ;  but 
passenger  trafl&c  was  rapidly  transferred  to  the  safer  and 
more  regular  steamship  lines. 

Commerce  on  the  Great  Lakes  was  marvelously  in- 
creased since  the  days  when  the  open  boat  of  the  fur 
trader  made  its  perilous  way  from  Buffalo  to  Detroit  and 
MichiUmackinac.     No  sooner  had  the  Erie  Canal  been  fin- 
nished  than  a  brisk  trade  developed  along  the  American 
shores.     Scores  of  brigs  and  schooners  were  built  at  Buffalo 
and  Erie  to  transport  the  wheat  and  lumber  products  of  the 
pioneer  settlements  to  Eastern  markets.    Nine  tenths  of 
this  traffic  was  between  United  States  ports  and  thus  was 
reserved  to  our  own  vessels.    A  little  steamer  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  tons,  Walk-in-the-Water,  was  launched  at 
Buffalo  in  1819.    The  venturesome  pioneer  was  wrecked 
two  years  later,  but  her  place  was  soon  filled  by  regular 
lines  of  lake  steamers.    They  were  built  stanch  and  broad 
to  breast  the  winds  and  waves  of  these  inland  seas.    The 
side  wheel,  customary  as  yet  in  ocean  steamers,  was  found 
impracticable  where  canals  and  narrow  channels  were  to 
be  traversed,  and  Ericsson's  screw  propeller  gradually 
superseded  the  original  model. 

Our  wonderful  waterway  to  the  heart  of  the  continent 
was  extended  and  improved  by  numerous  canals.  The 
Canadian  government  built  the  Welland  Canal  in  1833, 
and  the  state  of  Michigan  built  the  locks  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  in  1855,  while  the  dangerous  passage  through  Porte 
des  Morts  was  avoided  by  a  canal  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  Sturgeon  Bay.  Connection  between  Chicago  and  the 
Mississipyii  was  opened  via  ihe  Des  Plaines  and  the  Illinois, 
rivers  in  1848,  and  the  old  trader's  route  between  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien  was  made  practicable  for  lake 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iS^j     227 

vessels  by  a  canal  across  the  portage  between  the  Fox  and  Lardner, 
Wisconsin  rivers.     By  this  means,  a  boat  loaded  at  Buffalo  •'^s- 
might  reach  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  the  Yellowstone, 
or  New  Orleans  without  shifting  her  cargo.    A  steamer  james, 
of  moderate  bulk  and  draught  might,  indeed,  make  the  The  Canal 
trip  from  Baltimore  to  New  Orleans  by  inland  waters,   ^aUwa^ 
never  feeling  the  ocean  swell  except  for  a  few  hours  in  New- 
York  harbor.    The  advantages  for  domestic  commerce 
of  safe  and  cheap  transportation  throughout  this  enor- 
mus  circuit  can   hardly  be  overestimated. 


Speculation  and  the  Crisis 

In  every  branch  of  industry  the  craze  for  investment 
had  gone  far  beyond  safe  Umits.  Men  did  not  hesitate 
to  borrow  at  extravagant  rates  of  interest  and  to  mortgage 
future  earning  power  in  proportion  to  their  most  ardent 
anticipations.  The  capital  sunk  in  wheat  farms  and 
cotton  plantations,  in  gristmills  and  cotton  mills,  in  canals 
and  railroads  and  steamship  lines,  could  not  yield  immediate 
profit,  and  many  a  promising  enterprise  was  swamped 
in  irredeemable  obligations.  Impelled  by  buoyant  con- 
fidence in  its  apparently  inexhaustible  resources,  the  men 
of  the  new  frontier  scoffed  at  financial  limitations ;  and 
the  bitter  experience  of  inflation  and  collapse  through 
which  the  Eastern  states  had  passed  twenty  years  before 
was  ignored.  Western  financiers  chafed  at  the  restraints 
imp)osed  by  the  National  Bank  and  proposed  the  over- 
throw of  this  Eastern*  institution,  in  order  that  a  free  field 
might  be  opened  to  the  state  banks  of  issue. 

Failure  to  Recharter.  —  When  the  petition  for  re- 
chartering  the  National  Bank  came  before  Congress  in 
1832,  the  proposition  was  vigorously  opposed.  The  bill 
secured  a  majority  in  both  Houses,  but  it  was  vetoed  by 
President  Jackson  on  the  ground  that  the  bank  had  "  failed 
ill  the  great  end  of  establishing  a  sound  and  uniform 
currency."  Jackson  came  from  Tennessee,  where  wildcat 
banking  had  gone  to  unprecedented  extremes,  and  where 


Sumner, 
Andrew 
Jack^m,  Ch. 
VI,  XI. 


r 


III! 


Hi 


: 


I:        ! 


Cong.  Globe, 
I  St  Session, 
1S3S-1836, 
8. 


Laughlin, 
Bimetallism, 
Ch.  IV. 

Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
103-113. 


Dewey, 
224-231. 


Chevalier, 
Letters  III, 
IV,  V,  XIII. 


228      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  nxin  wrought  by  the  restrictive  measures  enforced 
by  the  Eastern  financiers  was  keenly  felt.  He  had  derived 
from  this  experience  a  profound  (istrust  of  the  National 
Bank  as  a  dangerous  monopoly,  a  conviction  that  the  issue 
of  paper  currency  should  be  left  to  state  control,  and  the 
hope  that  all  bank  money  might  soon  be  superseded  by 
specie.  He  beUeved  that  suppression  of  bank  notes  be- 
low the  twenty-dollar  denomination  would  necessitate  the 
use  of  gold  and  silver  and  place  the  currency  on  a  sound  basis. 

The  Debasement  of  the  Coinage.  —  Unfortunately  the 
bimetallic  system  was  altered  for  the  worse  just  at  this 
juncture.  The  discovery  of  workable  gold  in  the  moun- 
tains of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  gave  some  reason  to 
believe  that  the  domestic  production  of  this  metal  might 
supply  the  money  needs  of  the  country.  The  ratio  of 
fifteen  to  one  fixed  upon  in  1792  was  an  overvaluation  of 
silver,  and  gold  coins  had  been  withdrawn  from  circula- 
tion. In  1834  the  ratio  was  altered  to  sixteen  (15.98)  to 
one.  The  amount  of  pure  gold  in  the  eagle  was  reduced 
from  247.5  grains  to  232  grains  with  the  effect  of  debasing 
the  coinage  by  6.26  per  cent.  Benton  and  the  other  sup- 
porters of  the  administration  policy  flattered  themselves 
that  they  were  restoring  to  circulation  the  "  dollar  of  the 
fathers,"  the  silver  dollar  of  371.25  grains  proposed  by 
Hamilton;  but  under  the  new  ratio  silver  was  under- 
valued and  disappeared  from  circulation.  Gold  began  to 
be  coined  at  the  rate  of  three  and  four  million  dollars  a 
year,  but  not  in  sufiicient  quantities  to  meet  the  money 
demand.     Some  form  of  paper  currency  was  inevitable. 

The  Crisis  of  1837.  —  The  war  against  the  National 
Bank  was  carried  on  with  u.  ilagging  zeal.  The  Presi- 
dent's policy  was  supported  not  only  by  the  champions 
of  the  state  banks,  but  by  the  whole  debtor  class.  When 
the  proposition  for  renewal  came  up  again  in  1834,  it  was 
defeated  by  a  large  majority.  The  withdrawal  of  the 
National  Bank  notes  left  a  vacuum  which  the  state  banks 
were  not  long  in  making  good.  In  the  West  and  South 
banks  were  chartered  without  let  or  hindrance.    The 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  j8jy     229 


I 


number  increased  from  three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  in 
1829  to  seven  hundred  and  eighty-eight  in  1837,  with  a 
proportionate  increase  of  capital.  During  the  same  in- 
terval the  volume  of  the  currency  was  trebled,  and  bank 
loans  were  extended  at  an  even  more  rapid  rate. 

Speculation  was  outstripping  the  available  capital  of  the 
country.  Land  jobbers  borrowed  freely  of  the  banks 
in  the  expectation  of  speedy  returns.  Transportation 
companies  were  chartered  by  the  score  and  undertook 
schemes  far  beyond  the  needs  of  traffic.  Imports  exceeded 
exports  for  the  speculative  period  (1830-1837)  by  $140,- 
000,000.  Importers  ran  up  bills  with  their  foreign  agents 
or  induced  their  creditors  to  take  stock  in  American  enter- 
prises by  way  of  payment.  Under  the  stimulus  of  ad- 
vancing prices,  the  cotton  planters  of  the  Gulf  states 
extended  their  acreage,  mortgaging  the  growing  crop  for  Hammond, 
the  money  with  which  to  buy  slaves  and  put  up  cotton  gins.  '"'  '^• 
The  Mississippi  Valley,  north  and  south,  was  hea\'ily 
mortgaged  to  the  Eastern  bankers ;  the  seaboard  states 
were  under  heavy  obligations  to  English  capitalists ;  but 
the  largest  creditor  of  all  was  the  United  States  govern- 
ment. The  so-called  cash  payment  for  public  lands  had 
been  receivable  in  National  Bank  notes,  or  in  the  notes  of 
such  state  banks  as  could  assure  specie  redemption.  The 
distinction  was  not  one  easily  sustained.  Many  of  the 
"  coon  box  "  banks,  organized  since  1830,  were  loaning 
irredeemable  currency  to  land  speculators,  who  presented 
it  at  the  government  land  offices  in  defiance  of  the  law, 
and  the  United  States  Treasury  was  soon  glutted  with  this 
depreciated  currency.  In  1836  a  resolution  was  brough*^ 
forward  in  the  Senate  requiring  that  such  payments  be 
made  in  gold  and  silver,  but  it  failed  to  pass.  Under  direc- 
tion of  President  Jackson,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
issued  the  famous  specie  circular,  directing  that  land  sales 
must  be  efTected  in  legal  tender  except  in  case  of  actual 
^^ettlcrs  and  bona  fide  residents  in  the  state  where  the  lands 
lay.  From  such  purchasers  bank  bills  would  still  be 
received.    The  effect  of  the  specie  circular  was  to  dis- 


im^ 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
624-628. 


Diary  of 
Philip  Hone, 
I.  251-259- 


Collins.  Hist 
Sketchea  of 
Kentucky, 
95-97- 


230      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

credit  the  state  bank  notes,  and  private  creditors  began 
to  demand  payment  in  coin. 

When,   in   October,    1836,   financial   depression   over- 
whelmed the  English  business  worid,  American  obligations 
were  called  in,  and  the  banking  houses  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  became   seriously   embarrassed.    Then   the 
English  cotton  factories  curtailed  production,   and  th^ 
price  of  cotton  fell.    The  New  Orleans  banks,  accustomed 
to  loan  freely  on  cotton  securities,  were  the  first  to  break 
down.    Most  of  the  cotton  factors  failed,  and  the  Cotton 
Exchange  was  prostrated.    The  crisis  was  extended  to  the 
Northern  banks  by  a  general  failure  of  cereal  crops  in  1835 
and  again  in  1837.    The  farmers  of  the  Middle  and  Western 
states  had  nothing  to  sell,  and  were  as  little  able  as  the 
cotton   planters  to   meet  their  obligations.    Unable  to 
realize  upon  their  loans,  the  credit  agencies  collapsed  Uke 
so  many  balloons.    On  May  10,  1837,  the  banks  of  New 
York  City  suspended,  dragging  down  in  their  failure  many 
business  houses,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  bankruptcies 
occurred  within  two  months.    Real  estate  depreciated  in 
value  $40,000,000,  while  twenty  thousand  men  were  thrown 
out  of  employment.    The  outraged  pubUc  grew  dangerous, 
and  the  militia  was  called  in  to  protect  the  terrified  financiers. 
The  Philadelphia  banks  went  next.    The  officers  declared 
that  deposits  were  sufiicient  for  the  needs  of  their  own 
constituents,  but  that  they  could  not  be  expected  to  pro- 
vide currency  for  the  length  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard.    The 
panic  spread  like  an  epidemic,  and  six  hundred  and  eight- 
een banks  failed  in  this  fatal  year.    Everywhere  outside 
of  New  England  the  collapse  was  complete.    A  contempo- 
rary   thus    describes  the  crisis  in  Kentucky :    "  Specie 
disappeared  from  circulation  entirely,   and  the  smaller 
coin  was  replaced  by  paper  tickets,  issued  by  cities,  towns, 
and  individuals,  having  a  local  currency,  but  worthless 
beyond  the  range  of  their  immediate  neighborhood.  ... 
Bankruptcies  multiplied  in  every  direction.    All  public 
improvements  were  suspended ;   many  states  were  unable 

to  pay  the  interest  of  their  respective  debts,  and  Ken- 


Industnal  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  i8jy     231 


tucky  was  compelled  to  add  50  per  cent  to  her  direct  tax 
or  forfeit  her  integrity.  In  the  latter  part  of  1841,  and  in 
the  year  1842,  the  tempest  so  long  suspended  burst  in 
all  force  over  Kentucky.  The  dockets  of  her  courts 
groaned  under  the  enormous  load  of  lawsuits,  and  the 
most  frightful  sacrifices  of  property  were  incurred  by 
forced  sales  under  execution." 

Thus  another  period  of  reckless  speculation  was  brought 
to  a  sudden  close.  The  discredited  bank  notes  depreciated 
in  value,  and  prices  shrank  to  a  hard  money  level.  Factories 
and  workshops,  organized  on  a  boom  basis,  closed  in  antici- 
pation of  a  falling  market.  Thousands  of  operatives  were 
discharged,  and  the  cities  were  crowded  with  the  unem- 
ployed. All  classes  curtailed  expenditure,  and  the  demand 
for  goods  was  thus  further  reduced.  Seeing  the  market 
overstocked,  entrepreneurs  were  slow  to  take  risks,  and 
capitalists  declined  to  loan  money  on  any  terms. 

The  country  underwent  five  years  of  financial  depression. 
Specie  payment  was  generally  resumed  in  1838,  but  the  re- 
lief was  short-lived.  Seven  hundred  and  fifty-nine  banks 
closed  their  doors  the  following  year,  and  the  busines^ 
world  was  not  again  in  working  order  until  1842.  In  he 
interval  the  circulating  medium  had  been  contracted  from 
$149,000,000  to  $83,000,000.  Imports  fell  off,  and  hence 
the  customs  revenue  declined.  Sales  of  public  lands  shrank 
from  $24,877,000  in  1836  to  $898,000  in  1843.  The  sharp 
reduction  in  revenue  placed  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, which  had  distributed  a  surplus  of  $37,000,000  in 
1837,  under  necessity  of  declaring  a  deficit  of  $42,900,000 
for  the  seven  years  of  the  depression.  Some  of  the  newer 
state  governments  were  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy. 
Mississippi  and  Florida  repudiated  their  bonded  indebt- 
edness. 


Wages  and 

Prices, 

260-275. 


CHAPTER  Vni 


e: 


i 


iff 

inf. 


ir 


I!  I 


■It 


TERRITORIAL  EXPANSION  AND  REVENUE 
TARIFFS 

Growth  in  Wealth  aud  Poptilation 

The  twenty  years'  interval  between  the  crisis  of  1837 
and  that  of  .37  witnessed  the  most  remarkable  industrial 
development  yet  achieved  in  the  United  States.  The  wealth 
of  the  country  was  quadrupled  in  this ' '  golden  age. ' '  Riches 
multiplied  more  rapidly  than  population.  Our  per  capita 
wealth  in  i860  was  more  than  double  that  of  1840,  more 
than  three  times  that  of  1790.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
epoch,  the  accumulation  of  property  was  greatest  in  the 
older  and  more  industrial  sections  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
but  the  agricultural  communities  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
made  rapid  gains  and  in  the  second  decade  doubled  the 
amount  of  wealth  per  inhabitant. 

Per  Capita  Wealth  in  the  Several  Sections  of  the  United 

States 


U.  S.  Census,               year 
1800, 

N.  An. 

S.  ATI.. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Western 

Wealth, 

Debt,  etc.,        1850      .... 

Pt.II,  14.         i860      .     .     .     . 

$363 
528 

S333 
537 

$208 
436 

$299 
598 

$187 
434 

The  growth  of  population,  while  not  so  phenomenal  as 
during  the  colonial  and  pioneer  periods  of  our  history, 
was  still  more  rapid  than  in  any  Old  World  country. 

232 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     233 
Percentage  Increase  of  Total  and  Urban  Population 


1                             ' 
Decade        |      U.S.         X.  .\tl.   i    S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Ukban 

1840-1850     . 
I 850- I 860     . 

i 
35-9          27-6     j     19.2 
35-6          22.8     j     14.7 

61.2 
68.3 

42.2 
34-0 

99-3 
75-1 

The  drift  of  population  cityward  became  marked  after  u.  s.  Census, 
1840.     The  number  of  towns  with  a  population  of  more  ^^co,  Pop., 
than  8000,  only  44  in  18^0,  was  141  in  i860.     New  York  ^xxW.~ 
City  grew  in  this  twenty  years  from  313,000  to  806,000. 
The  chief  reasons  for  this  increasing  concentration  must 
be  sought  in  the  growth  of  manufactures  and  commerce. 
Cities  played  an  increasing  part  in  our  industrial  develop- 
ment because  the  introduction  of  machinery  and  steam 
transportation  called  for  the  massing  of  labor  and  capital. 

Density  of  Population 


Year 

N.  Alt.         S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Western 

1840  .      .      . 
1850  .      .      . 
i860  .      .     . 

41.7              146 
53-2             174 
65.4             20.0 

4-4 

7-2 
12. 1 

8.7 

71 

10.7 

.2 
•S 

U.  S.  Census, 
iQOo,  Pop.,  I, 

XXX. 


The  figures  indicate  a  general  westward  movement  of  the 
population  from  the  overcrowded  districts  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  to  the  new  lands  of  the  North  and  South  Central 
divisions.  The  relatively  rapid  increase  in  the  Northern 
as  compared  with  the  Southern  sections  is  due  to  immigra- 
tion. In  i860  there  were  4,138,000  foreign  born  in  the 
United  States,  the  greater  part  of  whom  had  come  into 
the  country  since  1840.  Famine  had  driven  781,000  Irish 
peasants  to  our  shores  in  the  first  decade  and  014,000  in 
the  second.  Political  disturbances  combined  with  in- 
dustrial depressions  induced  1,386,000  Germans  to  migrate 


Holmes, 
Ch.  VII. 


U.  S.  Census, 

IQOO, 

I,  ciii. 

Smith, 
Emigration 
and  Immi- 
gration, Ch. 

II,  III. 


mi 


. 


i.tfi 


I. 


Chickering, 

Foreign 

Immigration. 


Sato, 
422-428. 


234      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

to  America  during  this  same  twenty  years.  By  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  European  immigrants  came  to  the 
Northern  states.  The  chance  to  earn  good  wages  in  the 
factory  towns  of  New  England,  in  the  mines  and  foundries 
of  Pennsylvania,  attracted  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Eng- 
Ush,  Welsh,  and  Irish  thither,  and  the  native  American 
operatives  were  being  superseded  by  foreigners  whose 
standard  of  living  did  not  require  so  high  a  wage.  The 
German  immigrants  usually  pushed  on  into  the  new  West 
in  search  of  government  land.  The  Preemption  Act  of 
1841  finally  assured  to  the  squatter  the  privilege  of  buying 
the  land  he  had  brought  under  cultivation  at  the  govern- 
ment price  of  $1  ^  5,  no  matter  what  the  competitive  value 
might  be  at  the  time  the  tract  was  offered  for  sale.  Cash 
payment  might  thus  be  postponed  until  the  settler  had 
earned  the  sum  required. 

Few  foreigners  lound  their  way  to  the  Southern  states. 
Here  the  opportunity  for  wage-earning  employment  was 
forestalled  by  slavery,  and  there  was  little  free  land  except 
in  the  pine  barrens.  Moreover,  the  small  farmer  had  no 
chance  in  competition  with  the  large-scale  producer,  and 
hence  the  average  size  of  holdings  was  two  and  three  times 
greater  in  the  Southern  states  than  in  the  Northern. 

Average  Number  or  Acres  per  Farm 


Twentieth 
Kept.  Am. 
Anti- 
Slavery 
Sisciety. 


U.  S.  Census, 
;ooi),  V,  xxi. 


Yea* 


1850 
i860 


U.S. 

202.6 
199.2 


N.  Atl.     N.  Cent.     S.  Art. 


1 1 2.6 
108.1 


'43-3 
1397 


3764 
3S2-8 


S.  Cent. 


291.0 
321.3 


Weste«n 


694.9 
366.9 


The  forei^m  element  of  the  Southern  states  was  derived 
from  Africa,  and  the  presence  of  these  alien  laborers  de- 
barred European  immigration.  In  the  last  decade  before 
the  Civil  War  the  clande^^tine  slave  traders  grew  very  bold. 
Shiploads  were  landed  in  the  secluded  bayous  of  the  Gulf 
coast  and  Florida,  even  at  the  port  of  Mobile.    It  is  esti- 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     235 

mated  that  between  1808  and  i860  270,000  slaves  were 
smuggled  into  the  United  States.  These  fresh  importa- 
tions of  African  blood  added  to  the  numbers  but  degraded 
the  quality  of  the  slave  population  of  the  South  during  the 
very  period  in  which  the  Xorth  was  receiving  large  acces- 
sions of  laborers  from  the  most  civilized  races  of  Europe. 


Dubois, 
Slave  Trade, 
Ch.  X,  XI. 


Proportion  of  Slaves  to  White  Population 


State 

1850 

i860 

Per  cent 

Per  cent 

Delaware 

Missouri 

Maryland       

Kentucky       

Tennessee 

.\rkansas 

Te.xas 

North  Carolina 

\irginia 

(Jcorgia 

.Mabama 

Florida 

Louisiana       

Mississippi 

South  Carolina 

3 
IS 
21 
28 
32 
37 
40 

52 

S3 
71 
80 

83 

91 

103 

140 

2 
II 
17 
24 
33 
34 
43 
52 
47 
78 
83 
79 
93 

123 

138 

De  Bow, 
III,  4ig- 

U.  S.  Census 
t86o, 

Population, 
vii-irvi. 


Ingle  estimates  that  in  1850  there  were  2,500,000  slaves  ingle, 
on  the  plantations  of  the  South,  of  whom  the  number  Southern 

,  ,   .  .        .    1  •  Sidelights, 

350,000  were  employed  m  growing  tobacco,  rice  125,000,  ch.  vill. 
sugar  150,000,  hemp  60,000.  The  remainder,  1,815,000 
men,  women,  and  children,  were  at  work  in  the  cotton  fields 
of  the  "black  belt."  This  vast  army  of  cotton  growers 
represents  well-nigh  the  total  increase  in  the  slave  popula- 
tion in  the  sixty  years  from  1790  to  1850.  There  were  in 
the  Southern  states  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War  3,054,000 
slaves  and  262,000  free  negroes,  making  together  fully  one 
third  of  the  total  population.  The  foreign  born  were  then 
542,000,  but  one  twenty-fourth  of  the  total.    The  propor- 


i 

i'H 

'  i 


ill 


1fl 


.■ft 


1- 


Brown, 
Lower  South 
in  Am.  Hist., 
24-49- 


Olmsted, 
Seaboard 
Slave  States, 
504-522, 
536-546- 


Callendcr, 
Ch.  VII. 


Kcttell, 
Southern 
Wealth  and 
Northern 
Profits. 


236      Indus/rial  History  of  the  United  States 

tion  of  slaves  was  declining  in  the  border  states,  but  increas- 
ing farther  south  where  cUmate  and  staple  crops  combined 
to  render  this  a  highly  profitable  form  of  labor.  Some 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  planters  made  up  the 
slave-holding  class.  They  represented  not  more  than  5 
or  6  per  cent  of  the  white  population,  but  they  exercised 
a  dominating  influence  in  the  politics  of  the  South  and 
of  the  nation.  The  non-slaveholders  of  the  slave  states 
were  the  small  farmers  of  the  hill  country  and  the  poor 
whites,  crackers,  and  sand  lappers  of  the  plains.  For  these 
there  was  no  place  in  the  industrial  order.  To  work  for 
hire  was  to  lose  caste,  and  the  opportunities  for  self-em- 
ployed labor  were  few  and  precarious.  The  poor  whites 
managed  to  live  off  the  produce  of  their  inferior  lands, 
or  earned  a  comfortable  salary  as  slave-overseers. 

Industrial  Backwardness  of  the  South 

The  census  tables  indicate  higher  per  capita  wealth  in 
the  South  Central  than  in  the  North  Central  section,  but 
the  comparison  is  misleading,  for  the  slaves  were  reckoned 
as  property.    The  estimate  under  this  category  for  1 860  was 
$4,000,000,000,  reducing  the  property  of  the  South  Cen- 
tral, invested  in  land  and  improvements  thereon,  to  less 
than  the  Northern  total.     The  wealth  of  the  North  Cen- 
tral section  represented  farms,  factories,  shipping  and  rail- 
roads, and  was  more  evenly  divided  among  a  more  numer- 
ous population.     In  matter  of  fact,  the  planters  of  the  new 
South,  in  spite  of  their  immense  output  and  magnificent 
revenues,  were  being  steadily  impo\erished.    The  money 
received   for  each  season's  crops  was    immediately  dis- 
patched to  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  for  plantation 
supplies,  to  the  old  South  for  new  relays  of  slaves,  to  New 
England  and  abroad  for  manufactures  and  luxuries  of 
various  sorts.    Many  of  the  estates  were  heavily  mort- 
gaged,  and   few   were   self-su?taining,     There   was   little 
opportunity  and  less  desire  for  the  accumulation  of  capi- 
tal, and  without  capital  manufactures  and  transportation 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     237 

facilities  cannot  be  undertaken,  and  agriculture  will  be 
carried  on  in  hand-to-mouth  fashion. 

Per  Cent  of  Farm  Land  Improved 


Year 


1850  . 
i860   . 


U.S. 


38.5 

40.1 


N.  Atl. 


S.  Atl. 


61.6 
63.8 


32.1 
32-8 


42.() 

48.5 


N.  Cent.       S  Cent. 


28.4 
27.9 


Agriculture.  —  The  planters  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  had  no  share  in  the  agricultural  improvements  of  the 
ante-bellum  period.  Tillage  by  slave  labor  was  necessarily 
crude,  and  the  methods  extensive  rather  than  intensive. 
Machinery  could  not  be  used  to  advantage  because  the 
laborers  were  careless  and  unintelligent.  A  cheap  wooden 
plow  drawn  by  mule  or  ox,  a  hoe,  and  a  broadax  were  the 
only  implements  with  which  the  field  hands  could  be 
trusted.  The  contrast  in  the  equipment  of  Northern 
and  Southern  agrif^ulture  is  evident  in  the  census  statistics. 
The  money  value  of  agricultural  implements  and  machinery 
averaged  in  1850  thirty-seven  cents  per  acre  in  the  Southern 
states,  and  seventy-seven  in  the  Northern.  In  i860  the 
difference  was  still  greater,  the  average  value  per  acre  being 
forty-two  cents  in  the  Southern  and  ninety-four  cents  in 
the  Northern  states.  Conservation  of  the  soil  by  the 
application  of  manures  and  fertiUzers,  rotation  of  crops, 
and  the  introduction  of  new  seeds  seemed  so  difficult  that 
few  planters  undertook  to  improve  on  antiquated  processes. 
Phe  simpler  method  was  to  abandon  the  cultivation  of 
exhausted  soils  and  clear  new  land.  So  usual  was  this 
practice,  that  a  field  entirely  free  from  stumps  was  thought 
lo■^s  fertile  and  actually  brought  a  lower  price  in  the  market 
than  land  cluttered  with  the  debris  of  the  forest.  The 
proportion  of  improved  land  was  steadily  increasing  in 
the  Northern  sections  of  the  country,  while  in  the  Southern 
it  was  slightly  declining. 


Ingle, 
Ch.  II. 

Ooodloe, 
Resources  of 
the  Southern 
States. 

Hildreth, 
Despotism 
in  America, 
Ch.  III. 

U.  S.  Census, 

IQUO, 

V,  xxxx. 


Murtineau, 

I,  2Q<)-.506. 


Weston, 
Progress  of 
Slavery, 
Ch.  XV. 


Ingle, 
Sd,  57.  59- 

Census, 
/OOP,  V, 
zzxiv. 


238      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Di  :.  if  cation  of  crops  was  being  continually  urged  by 
the  friends  of  Southern  agriculture,  but  it  was  well-nigh 
impossible  to  act  on  such  advice.    The  cultivation  of 
fruits,  vegetables,  and  grain  required  more  skill  and  m- 
telligence   than   the   average   plantation   could   furnish. 
The  planters  of  Louisiana  were  unable  to  raise  even  the 
slave  rations,  and  were  fain  to  purchase  corn  meal,  pork, 
and  salt  beef  from  the  thrifty  farmers  north  of  the  Ohio 
River.    In  the  production  of  Uve  stock,  spite  of  chmatic 
advantages,  the  South  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  country 
as  a  whole.    Swine  and  mules  flourished  in  the  open  and 
managed  to  fatten  on  acorns  and  standing  fodder,  but 
cattle  and  horses  deteriorated  for  lack  of  care. 


Crop  Statistics 


I   I; 


hfi 


'■-V 


De  Bow, 

II,  397-399 ; 
III. 

iQS-207, 
266-26Q, 

»8s-299. 


Vkar 


1840 
1850 
i860 


Rice 


Tobacco 


lb.  !b. 

8q.ooo,ooo  I  2iq,ooo,ooo 

2I5,000,CXX5  I  IQQ.OOO.OOO 

187.000,000  I  434,000,000 


SUGAK 

hhd. 

247,000 
240,000 


Cotton 


bales 

2,46q,oq3 
5.387,052 


Southern  landowners  found  most  money  gain  in  grow- 
ing the  great  staples  which  could  be  planted  and  harvested 
by  gangs  of  slaves  and  by  wholesale  methods.  Tobacco 
was  the  principal  crop  of  the  northern  tier  of  Southern 
states  —  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  and  Missouri.  Rice  was  still  cultivated  in  the 
swamp  lands  of  the  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  coast, 
cotton  on  the  uplands  of  the  interior.  The  southern  half 
of  Louisiana  was  given  over  to  sugar  culture.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  cotton  was  being  pushed  westward  on  to  the  black 
soils  of  northern  and  central  Texas,  for  the  exhausted  soils 
of  the  Atlantic  state-*  bore  diminishing  harvests.  Even  the 
fertile  alluvial  plains  bordering  on  the  Gulf  were  wearing 
out.     The  production  of  rice  and  sugar,  crops  confined  to 


y^H 

iera 

C7T    ■;'  -.--/iJC^SiS^^^ 

P£jF^'*--«-  '-                •      ■'■■  ^ 

^■* 


Cotton  Production 


1 


J' 

I 


J 


I! 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     239 


a  limited  area,  was  evidently  falling  off.    The  increase  in 

tobacco  was  due  to  the  extension  of  this  culture  to  new 

soils  in  the  West  as  well  as  in  the  South.     The  real  gains  De  Bow, 

in  Southern  agriculture  become  apparent  in  the  statistics  ^<  i2i-»S2- 

of  cotton  production.    This  crop  had  doubled  with  every 

decade  from  1800  to  1840.    Between  1840  and  i860  the 

output  was  trebled.     In  182 1  two  thirds  of  the  cotton  crop 

was  grown  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard ;  but  with  the  west-  De  Bow, 

em  extension  of  cotton  culture,  the  proportions  were  re-  ^'  "•'■ 

versed.    In  1830, 64.4  per  cent,  and  in  i860,  77.5  per  cent, 

of  this  staple  was  grown  west  of  the  mountains.     South  u.  s.  Census, 

Carolina  produced  28  per  cent  of  the  total  crop  in  182 1,  [f^'^^i 

15  per  cent  in  1834,  12  per  cent  in  1850,  and  6.6  per  cent 

in  i860.    The  planters  of  both  Texas  and  Arkansas  were 

producing  in  i860  larger  crops  than  the  state  that  had 

begun  the  cvdtivation  of  cotton  seventy  years  before. 


VI.  425. 


Statistics  of  Cotton  Production 


State 


South  Carolina 
Georgia  .  .  . 
Virginia  .  .  . 
Tennessee 
North  Carolina 
Louisiana  .  . 
Alabama  .  . 
Mississippi  .  . 
Arkansas  .  . 
Texas  .  .  . 
Florida    .     .     . 

Total    .     . 


1 8.54 

bales 

130,000 

150,000 

20,000 

90,000 

18,000 

124,000 

170,000 

170,000 

1,000 


1850 


bales 
300,901 
499,091 
3.947 
194,532 
73.84s 
178,737 
564.429 
484,292 

65,344 

58.072 
45,130 


873,000    !  2,469,093 


i860 


bales 
3S3r*i2 
701,840 

12,727 
296,464 
145.514 
777.738 

989,95s 
1,202,507 

367,393 

431,463 

65-153 


5.387.052 


Manufactures.  —  The   economic    relations   that    Great  Ingle, 
Britain  had  once  undertaken  to  establish  by  commercial  ^^-  "i- 
restrictions,  Southern  planters  were  new  fulfilling  of  their 


IT' 


I  ! 


liMI 


!« 


De  Bow, 
I,  123.  177, 
191,  198. 


De  Bow, 
I,  211-223, 
229-242. 


De  Bow, 
III,  33-36. 


Ingle, 
75-76. 

De  Bow, 
I,  231-232. 


240      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

own  accord.  They  were  devoting  all  available  capital 
and  labor  to  producing  the  raw  material  cf  English  manu- 
factures. Their  great  staple  supplied  ihe  cotton  factories 
of  Old  England  with  1,247,000  bales  in  1840,  and  2,669,000 
bales  in  i860.  In  spite  of  many  efforts  to  foster  cotton 
culture  in  India,  Egypt,  and  Brazil,  England  was  still 
dependent  on  the  American  supply,  but  she  found  a  com- 
pensating advantage  in  the  increasing  market  for  cheap 
cotton  goods  on  the  plantations  of  the  Southern  states. 
The  cotton  manufacturers  of  New  England  were  no  less 
convenienced  by  the  predilection  of  the  South  for  agri- 
culture and  her  neglect  of  manufactures. 

In  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  ratio  of 
manufactures  to  population  was  higher  in  the  Southern 
states  than  in  New  England.  For  cotton  manufacture 
the  South  had  great  natural  advantages  in  that  the  raw 
material  might  be  had  direct  from  the  gin  without  the  cost 
of  transportation  and  the  factor's  commission  paid  by 
English  and  by  Northern  mills.  Water  power  was  abundant 
along  the  "  fall  line,"  and  extensive  deposits  of  coal  offered 
fuel  for  steam  power  at  low  cost.  Labor,  too,  was  plenti- 
ful and  cheap.  Free  white  operatives  might  be  had  at 
less  than  one  half  the  wage  paid  in  the  Northern  factories. 
Slaves  could  be  hired  at  still  lower  rates,  and  they  proved 
to  have  sufficient  skill  to  operate  the  spinning  mules  and 
even  the  looms.  The  advantages  of  converting  slaves 
to  this  use  were  thus  stated  by  a  Southern  writer :  "  ot- 
ton  growers,  who  have  owned  slaves  long,  know  they  are 
capable  of  making  efficient  operatives;  and  when  once 
learned,  they  are  fixed,  permanent,  and  valuable.  This 
branch  of  the  business  furnishes  profitable  employment 
on  cotton  to  a  portion  of  the  field  force,  which  relieves  the 
soil  to  that  extent  which  is  now  wasting  away  from  over- 
fatigue. It  gives  scope  to  all  the  mechanical  talent  among 
the  slaves,  both  males  and  females  —  men  in  the  machine 
shops,  and  women  among  the  mules,  throstles,  and  looms." 
In  spite  of  these  evident  advantages,  there  were  but  few 
cotton  mills  in  the  "  black  belt."    Of  the  million  and  a 


li 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     241 


!  ! 

;      -t 


quarter  spindles  operated  in  the  United  States  in  1840, 
but  181,000  belonged  to  the  South.  In  1850  the  South 
could  boast  but  242,000  spindles  out  of  three  and  a  half 
million;  in  i860,  but  290,359  out  of  five  and  a  quarter 
million.  The  few  successful  mills  were  spinning  yarn  for 
Northern  looms  or  weaving  the  coarse  cloth  that  wa^j  to 
be  printed  in  the  calico  works  of  New  England.  Southern 
entrepreneurs  were  no  less  sluggish  respecting  their  op- 
portunity for  leather  manufactures.  Massachusetts  was 
sending  into  the  South  each  year  $5,000,000  worth  of  shoes, 
a  good  part  of  which  were  made  of  hides  tanned  outside  of 
New  England. 

The  iron  works  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  had  been 
maintained  without  interruption  from  colonial  days  far 
into  the  nineteenth  century,  but  the  mountaineers  who 
worked  the  iron  ore  of  the  Appalachian  Range  held  to  the 
rude  and  wasteful  methods  of  the  pioneers.  They  could 
not  compete  with  modem  furnaces,  and  produced  only 
domestic  utensils  and  agricultural  implements  for  local 
trade.  An  enterprising  Yankee,  Daniel  Pratt,  went  to 
Alabama  in  the  forties,  and  undertook  the  construction 
of  cotton  gins,  saw,  grist,  and  flour  mills  for  the  Southern 
market.  In  the  manufacture  of  machinery  too  bulky  to 
bear  the  cost  of  transportation  he  made  a  great  success; 
but,  in  general,  the  iron  manufactures  of  the  North  were 
far  cheaper.  The  South  developed  no  first-rate  iron  or 
steel  works  before  the  Civil  War.  Vast  deposits  of  high- 
grade  bituminous  coal  were  treasured  in  the  southern 
Appalachians,  but  the  amount  mined  was  inconsiderable 
when  compared  with  the  output  of  the  Northern  states. 


U.  S.  Census, 
i860. 
Manufac- 
tures, 
jd-xiv. 


U.  S.  Census, 
i860. 
Manufac- 
tures, 
Ixvii-lxviii. 


Swank, 
Ch.  XXX. 


U.  S.  Census, 
i860, 
Manufac- 
tures, 
ccxiv-ccjtvi. 


Coal  Production 


Year 


1840 
i860 


South 


bush.' 
11,711,073 
34,103,727 


XOKTH 


bush. 
IS,8Q2,IS2 

110,273,200 


242      Industriai  History  of  the  United  States 


i 


m 


m 
m 

I 


m 


!  ir 


li'! 


I  \ 


De  Bow, 
II.  435-4S4. 
473- 


Goodloe, 
117. 


De  Bow, 
II,  187. 


Ingle, 
Ch.  IV 


Railroads  could  be  built  through  the  seaboard  and  Gulf 
states  at  half  the  cost  of  construction  in  the  North  Atlantic 
section.  The  plains  and  foothills  of  the  South  offered 
sUght  physical  difficulties,  timber  and  iron  for  laying  the 
track  might  be  had  along  the  line  of  route,  while  slave 
labor  cost  only  twenty  cents  a  day.  Nevertheless,  Southern 
railroads  were  built  but  slowly.  The  cherished  project  of 
connecting  Charleston  with  the  Mississippi  River  was  not 
accomplished  until  1858.  Moreover,  the  transportation 
facilities  on  the  Southern  roads  were  inferior  and  charges 
higher  than  on  the  Northern  lines. 

Commerce.  —  The  first  American  steamer  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  had  sailed  from  Savannah,  but  no  packet  lines 
ran  from  Southern  ports.  The  enormous  export  trade 
in  cotton  was  carried  on  in  Northern  or  English  vessels. 
Between  1840  and  i860  Southern  shipyards  built  but  ten 
per  cent  of  the  total  output  of  the  United  States,  and  their 
vessels  were  small  side  or  stern  wheelers  intended  for  the 
coastwise  and  river  trade.  "  The  South,  while  producing 
a  majority  of  the  exports,  owned  less  than  a  fifth  of  the 
shipping  of  the  Union,  and  brought  to  the  country  only 
one  ninth  of  the  imports."  There  was  no  lack  of  raw 
materials  for  shipbuilding.  The  South  possessed  inex- 
haustible forests  of  pine,  oak,  and  locust,  so  that  masts  and 
spars,  turpentine  and  pitch,  might  be  had  for  from  one  half 
to  one  tenth  the  price  at  New  York,  Newport,  or  Boston. 
Hemp  for  cordage  was  abundant,  and  iron  ore  suitable  for 
anchors  and  cables  existed  in  vast  quantities.  Southern- 
ers were,  however,  slow  to  develop  new  enterprises,  and  the 
benefits  of  government  action  in  behalf  of  shipping,  com- 
merce, etc.,  accrued  chiefly  to  the  North.  The  bonus  of 
from  one  to  two  dollars  per  ton  on  fishing  vessels  went  to 
the  fishermen  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine,  the  former 
securing  $7,926,000  and  the  latter  $4,175,000  out  of  the 
$13,000,000  dispensed  between  1789  and  i860.  For  the 
same  reasons,  the  subsidized  steamship  lines  belonged  to 
the  Northern  ports.  Charleston  subscribed  stock  for  an 
Atlantic  Steam  Navigation  Company,  and  Virginia  pro- 


\ 

'A 

v.. 

Cotton  Traffic 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     243 


posed  a  subsidy  for  the  Franco-American  line,  but  these 
and  other  projects  came  to  naught.  Despite  their  cotton 
trade,  the  tonnage  of  the  principal  ports,  Charleston  and 
New  Orleans,  was  decUning.  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Baltimore,  by  building  railroads  and  canals,  had  arrogated 
to  themselves  the  commerce  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
With  the  decline  of  trade,  customs  revenues  feU  off,  and 
government  expenditure  in  the  waj  of  collection  was  re- 
duced. Appropriations  for  internal  improvements,  the 
dredging  of  rivers  and  harbors,  the  building  of  break- 
waters, etc.,  were  usually  made  at  the  instance  of  the  more 
enterprising  communities  to  the  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line. 

Before  the  end  of  this  era  of  expansion  the  economic 
divergence  between  North  and  South  had  become  so 
marked  as  to  give  rise  to  considerable  jealousy.  Some- 
thing quite  analogous  to  a  nonimf)ortation  association  was 
projected  by  the  business  men  of  Mobile.  A  circular 
issued  in  the  last  decade  before  the  war  urged  upon  pa- 
triotic citizens  that  they  patronize  Southern  industry  DeBow, 
and  discriminate  against  the  products  of  the  rival  section,  m- 
English  goods  and  commercial  houses  were  to  be  preferred 
to  tnose  of  the  North. 


122-123. 


£1 

i 


I 


Territorial  Expansion 

Exploitation  of  the  soil  such  as  was  practiced  in  the 
slave-holding  states  could  not  long  maintain  a  growing 
population.  The  younger  and  more  enterprising  of  the 
Southern  planters  had  been  carr}  ig  their  slaves  into  Texas, 
where  land  might  be  obtained  in  \  ast  tracts  and  where  a  soil 
of  astonishing  fertility  enabled  them  to  recoup  their  de- 
cUning fortunes.  By  1830  the  Americans  outnumbered 
the  Spanish  population,  and  the  Mexican  government  be- 
came seriously  concerned  lest  this  rich  province  pass  from 
its  control.  A  series  of  restrictive  measures,  e.g.  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  the  prohibition  of  the  importation  of  slaves, 
and  the  denial  of  the  right  of  settlement  to  free  persons 


I: 


^1 


ill 

i:;t 


Ut 


I  lit  tell, 
History  of 
California, 

II  i75-4'wj- 


244      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

from  the  United  States,  were  disregarded  by  the  invaders 
who  had  slight  respect  for  the  Spanish  authorities.    Matters 
were  brought  to  a  crisis  in  1835,  when  the  invaders  declared 
the  independ^ence  of  Texas  and  set  up  an  autonomous 
republic.     Southern    conj^ressmen    gladly     utilized     this 
opportunity  to  annex  the  revolted  province,  and  although 
the  measure  was  vigorously  opposed  by  Northern  states- 
men who  deplored  any  extension  of  slave  terntory,  the 
slave  interest  triumphed.    During  the  ensuing  war  twx) 
American  armies  marched  through  the  heart  of  the  enemy  s 
country,  capturing  Chihuahua,  Vera  Cruz,  and  the  City 
of  Mexico,  and  a  thi^d,  the  Army  of  the  West,  struck 
through  the  Northern  provinces,  taking  possession  of  Santa 
Fe  and  San  Diego.     Nowhere  was  there  any  effective  re- 
sistance, and  in  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo  (1848), 
Mexico  was  forced  to  yield  all  the  territory  north  of  the 
Rio  Grande  and  Gila  rivers  upon  the  payment  of  $15,000,- 
000  indemnity.     The  Wilmot  Proviso,  stipulating   that 
slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  all  territory  that  might  be 
acquired  from  Mexico,  failed,  and  a  vast  area  was  opened 
up  to  the  enterprise  of  slave  owners. 

Tipper  CaUfornia  had   long  been  coveted  by   certain 
Western  senators  who  knew  something  of  the  rich  resources 
of  the  country  and  the  weakness  of  the  Mexican  rule. 
For  twenty  years  a  flourishing  trade  had  been  carried  on 
between  Boston  and  the  Californian  ports,  San  Diego,  San 
Pedro,    Santa   Barbara,   nnd    Monterey,  dry  goods   and 
groceries  being  exchanged  for  hides  and  tallow  from  the 
cattle  ranches.     A  few  American  merchants  and  sailors 
had  become  domiciled  at  one  or  another  of  the  coast  towns 
and  they  sent  back  to  their  friends  glowing  accounts  of 
soil  and 'climate  and  of  the  fortunes  to  be  made  in  the  un- 
exploited   commercial   and   agricultural   resources  of   the 
country.      Moreover,  trappers  and  Indian  traders,  and. 
latterly .  a  few  ^migrant?,  had  f<^unn  their  way  across  the 
Sierras,     '''here  were  some  five  thousand  Americans  set- 
tled in  the  i>rovince  when  war  with  Mexico  was  declared, 
anil  t-u->  kilt  acrive  aid  to  the  cause  of  the  United  States. 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Reventte  Tariffs     245 


4 


Hardly  had  the  annexation  of  California  been  ratified,  Hitteii, 
when  the  discovery  of  nuggets  and  scales  of  virgin  gold  in  the  ^^^^^^^~^^^' 
river  drift  near  Sutter's  Fort  precipitated  a  westward  move- 
ment very  different  in  character  from  any  that  had  taken 
place  since  the  sixteenth  century.  A  horde  of  adventurers, 
young  men  for  the  most  part,  rushed  to  the  El  Dorado 
on  the  Pacilic  Coast.  Gold  to  the  amount  of  $5,000,000 
was  taken  from  the  placers  of  the  Sacramento  Valley  in 
184S  by  the  five  thousand  men  who  were  first  on  the 
ground.  During  the  next  year  fifty  thousand  people 
made  their  way  to  California.  They  came  from  all  parts 
of  the  world:  Sonorians  and  Chilians  from  the  Spanish 
republics,  Chinese  and  Malays  from  the  Orient,  Kanakas 
from  the  Sandwich  Islands,  "  colony  men  "  from  Australia ; 
but  the  strength  and  sinew  of  the  migration  was  from 
England,  Germany,  and  the  Eastern  states.  Some  of  the 
"  forty-niners  "  braved  the  four  months'  voyage  round  the 
Horn,  others  look  advantage  of  the  newly  established 
steamship  lines  to  Colon  and  San  Francisco;  but  the 
penurious  and  foolhardy  Westerners  made  their  hazardous 
way  along  the  Oregon  Trail  to  Fort  Bridger,  and  thence 
across  the  Great  American  Desert  and  over  the  Sierra 
Range  to  the  gold  diggings.  Once  arrived  in  the  land 
of  gold,  the  treasure  seekers  scattered  over  the  foothills 
from  the  Merced  River  to  the  Trinity,  searching  the  river 
wash  for  the  golden  gravel  that  made  men  mad.  Some 
'•  struck  it  rich  "  and  returned  home  to  invest  their  easily 
gotten  wealth,  but  the  average  "  take  "  did  not  exceed 
Si 000  a  year,  and  barely  sufficed  to  meet  living  and  travel- 
ing expenses.  By  official  estimate  $40,000,000  worth  of  iiittdl, 
gold  was  exported  in  1849  and  $50,000,000  in  1850,  and  ^'^  •♦m- 
it  is  probal)le  that  one  fourth  the  tindings  were  not  reported 
to  the  government.  The  maximum  production  was 
reached  in  185^,  when  the  \alue  of  the  gold  output  was 
$65,000,000.  Then  it  became  apparent  that  the  surface 
diggings  were  nearly  exhausted  and  that  deep  mining  and 
more  costly  melhcwls  must  be  resorted  to  if  California 
was  to  remain  the  golden  state. 


>  i  )\ 


II 


■     \ 


Linn,  Story 
of  the 
Mormons, 

378-40Q. 


Brough, 
Irrigation 
in  Utah, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


Greenhow, 
Histor>'  of 
Oregon. 


Wycth, 
Journal. 


Pantroft, 
Oregon. 


246      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Utah.  —  At  Salt  Lake,  on  the  edge  of  the  Great  Basin, 
the   "  forty-niners "   came  upon  a   Mormon  settlement. 
The  first  Saints  had  migrated  from  Council  Bluffs  in  the 
summer  of  1847,  treking  up  the  north  bank  of  the  Platte 
River  (by  what  came  to  be  known  as  the  Mormon  Trail) 
to  Fort  Bridger,  and  thence  across  the  Wasatch  Range 
to   the  desert  interior.     The   region  had  been   thought 
hopeless  by  all  previous  explorers,    jut  the  sage  brush 
plains  proved  highly  fertile  under  ii.  gation.     The  settlers 
put  up  sawmills  and  gristmills,  woolen  factories  and  iron 
works,  and  were  soon  able  to  supply  themselves  with  all 
the  necessities  of  life.     Few  Mormons  joined  in  the  rush  to 
California.     They  found  a  surer  means  of  making  money 
in  providing  food  and  transportation  to  the  desperate 
gold  seekers.    In  the  winter  of  1848-1849  there  were  five 
thousand  people  in  Utah,  and  the  leaders  of  the  church 
had  organized  a  system  of  emigration  by  which  thousands 
of  converts  were  brought  every  year  from  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  and  Scandinavia  to  the  new  Zion  beyond  the 

Rockies. 

Oregon.  —  From  the  day  when  Astor's  trading  post  was 
abandoned  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  Columbia 
River  region  had  been  coveted  by  Americans.     Jedidiah 
Smith,  Sublette,  and  other  bold  spirits  trapped  and  traded 
in  the  disputed  territory  and  brought  their  spoils  to  St. 
Louis ;  but  not  till  1832  was  there  any  attempt  to  establish 
trading  posts.    In  that  year  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth  with 
a  party  of  Massachusetts  men  followed  the  fur  traders' 
route  to  Fort  Vancouver  on  the  Columbia.     Convinced 
of  the  rich  possibilities  of  the  country,  Wyeth  built  Fort 
Hall  on  the  Snake  Ri\cr  and  began  a  farm  colony  on  an 
i>land  at  the  junction  of  the  Willamette  and  the  Columbia. 
Four  years  later  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  conducted  a  mis- 
sionary expedition  over  the  same  route  to  the  Walla  Walla 
and  proved  the  Oregon  Trail  practicable  for  women  and 
wagons.     Reports  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the  lower 
Columbia  and  Willamette  valleys  were  sent  back  to  the 
"  states,"  and  thousands  of  emigrants  turned  their  faces 


i 

II 

i'ff 

'  't 

; 

!:i  -' 

»  K. 

11  i  w 

^^if 

^  :  li' 

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Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     247 


to  this  region.  In  June,  1843,  a  caravan  of  two  hundred 
wagons  left  Westport  for  the  long  overland  journey.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  a  great  migration.  The  characteristic 
vehicle  was  a  heavy  four-wheeled  cart  with  canvas  cover, 
very  like  the  conistogas  of  an  earlier  day.  The  women 
and  children  with  provisions  and  camping  kit  were  carried 
in  the  wagons,  while  the  men  rode  horseback  or  walked 
alongside.  The  night  encampment  was  strictly  guarded 
lest  a  foraging  band  of  Indians  capture  the  horses  and  oxen. 
Dr.  Whitman  had  represented  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
the  necessity  of  establishing  military  stations  at  con- 
venient points  for  the  purpose  of  providing  supplies  and 
protection  to  the  emigrants,  and  in  this  same  year  Colonel 
Fremont  was  sent  out  to  reconnoiter  the  route.  He  found 
a  well-beaten  trail  and  roadside  camps  the  whole  distance 
from  Westport  to  Fort  Hall.  "  The  edge  of  the  wood,  Fremont, 
for  several  miles  along  the  [Bear]  River,  was  dotted  with  ^'"P,  °} 

,,  ,   .  Explonng 

the  white  covers  of  emigrant  wagons,  collected  in  groups  Expedition 
at  different  camps,  where  the  smokes  were  rising  lazily   loOregm, 
from  the  fires,  around  which  the  women  were  occupied   '"*'*■ 
in  p;  eparing  the  evening  meal ;  and  the  children  playing 
in  the  grass,  and  herds  of  cattle  grazing  about  in  the  bot- 
tom, had  an  air  of  quiet  security  and  civilized  comfort, 
that  made  a  rare  sight  for  the  traveler  in  such  a  remote 
wildernesss." 

Before  the  autumn  of  1845  three  thousand  emigrants 
bat!  followed  this  road  to  Oregon.  Houses  and  cattle  and 
l)|n  ,((i  fields  drove  the  beaver  from  their  haunts  and 
llirtatened  the  extinction  of  the  fur  trade.  Dr.  McLough- 
liii.  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  at  Fort 
\'ancouver,  was  most  hospitable  to  the  settlers,  hoj)ing 
that  they  would  develop  the  fertile  region  south  of  the 
Columbia  and  furnish  grain  and  other  supplies  f'r  the 
Alaskan  jwsls.  But  the  Americans  were  not  content  to 
1)0  Rovorned  by  a  trade  monopoly,  however  bcniAolent, 
and  thiy  demanded  a  republican  governn'ent  under  the 
protection  of  the  United  States.  The  emigrant  trains 
came  steadily  on,  and  Great  Britain  was  finally  forced 


248      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


('!  ! 


to  surrender  the  land  to  the  actual  occupants.  The  Ash- 
burron  Treaty  (1846)  secured  the  coast  from  the  California 
boundary  to  the  49th  parallel  to  the  United  States. 

The  population  of  the  Cordilleran  and  Pacific  Coast 
settlements  amounted  in  i860  to  more  than  five  hundred 
thousand,  but  the  slave  owners  were  few.  The  character 
of  the  settlers  as  w^ell  as  the  nature  of  climate  and  economic 
resources,  rendered  the  region  unsuited  to  slavery.  There 
was  no  use  for  slaves  in  the  mines,  on  the  sheep  and  cattle 
ranches,  or  in  diversified  agriculture.  The  Far  West 
offered,  on  the  contrary,  many  promising  opportunities 
for  free  labor  and  self-employment.  Irrigation  required 
a  degree  of  intelligence  and  a  capacity  for  forethought 
that  could  only  be  found  in  the  free  landed  proprietor. 

Through  Routes  to  the  West 

The  westward  movement  of  population  necessitated 
improved  transportation  facilities.  The  three  trans- 
Aileghany  canals  had  brought  passengers  and  goods  to 
the  Ohio  River  and  Lake  Erie,  but  by  slow  and  uncertain 
stages.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  reached  vest- 
waru-nowing  water  at  Wheeling  in  1853.  New  York 
had  a  roundabout  connection  with  Buffalo  by  1842,  via 
the  Hudson  River  (which  was  frozen  over  during  the  winter 
months)  and  a  series  of  seven  independent  lines  requiring 
several  transfers.  The  New  York  and  Erie,  the  first  con- 
tinuous hne  built  across  the  state,  reached  Dunkirk  on  Lake 
Erie  in  1851,  and  there  passengers  and  freight  for  points 
farther  west  were  transferred  to  steamer^.  Philadelphia 
had  a  much  more  difficult  transportation  problem  than 
New  York,  since  the  height  of  the  range  in  Pennsylvania 
is  four  times  as  great  as  through  the  Mohawk  Pass.  The 
state  undertook  to  improve  on  the  canal  connection  already 
Wilson.  Hist,  established  by  building  railways  along  the  more  practicable 
Pennsvjva-  portions  of  thc  routc.  thus  red'.iring  the  time  required, 
nia  Railway,  r^^^  building  of  an  all-ruil  route  was  undertaken  by  a  pri- 
vate company  in  1846,  and  the  first  train  was  run  through 


Adams, 
Railroads, 
Their  Origin 
and 
Problems. 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     349 

to  Pittsburg  in  1852.  Boston  alone  of  the  great  Xorthcrn 
ports  failed  to  establish  a  through  line  to  the  West. 
Massachusetts  had  built  the  first  post  road,  the  first  canal, 
and  the  first  iron  tramway  (the  three-mile  line  connecting 
the  granite  quarries  of  Quincy  with  tidewater),  but  her 
citizens  ..ere  slow  to  invest  capital  in  the  locomotive. 
When  the  Boston  and  Worcester  road  was  finally  opened, 
it  amounted  to  little  more  than  "  a  forty  mile  extension 
of  Boston  wharf."  New  England's  railway  system  was 
purely  local,  centering  in  "  the  Hub."  The  Great  Western 
Railway  was  only  with  difficulty  and  by  state  aid  carried 
through  to  Albany  (1841),  and  was  operated,  not  in  C(m- 
nection  with  the  Boston  and  Worcester,  but  under  an  in- 
dependent and  antagonistic  management.  Even  when 
the  two  lines  were  finally  consolidated  into  the  Boston  and 
Albany  Railroad  (1866),  the  all-important  through  route 
to  the  West  was  not  achieved.  The  Buffalo  and  Albany 
was  financed  from  New  York,  and  its  management  was 
not  concerned  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  rival 
port. 

Railroad  construction  in  the  West  began  with  the  build- 
ing of  a  line  from  Detroit  to  Ann  Arbor  in  1838.  The 
legislature  of  Michigan  undertook  to  carry  three  railroads 
acrosf  the  state  from  Port  Huron,  Detroit,  and  Munroe 
to  Lake  Michigan  ;  but  the  routes  lay  through  virgin  forest, 
and  traffic  could  not  pay  running  expenses.  The  state 
management  was  inefficient,  and  the  enterpri?^  was  finally 
(1850)  made  over  to  private  companies.  The  Northwest 
was  wholly  agricultural,  towns  were  few  and  far  between, 
and  traffic  was  light.  In  1850  there  was  but  one  mile 
of  track  for  eac'-  19,000  of  population  in  the  states  of 
dhnois  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Im-a,  and  Missouri,  while  Lardner 
.New  England  boasted  one  mile  of  railroad  to  4000 
people.  In  the  next  decade  a  mania  for  railroads 
seized  the  new  West.  Roads  were  built  in  advance  of 
tratiic,  and  the  mileage  was  raoidly  increased.  By  iSoo 
there  was  a  mile  of  railroad  for  every  012  of  the  popu- 
lation m  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley. 


Railway 
Kconomv, 

Ch.  xxii. 


rxr 


<l 


^% 


m 


I  ! : 


I 


■in: 


^^^^B 

■ 

■ 

l^-'i 

1  i  :■:     -.  I 

■ 

I 

1 

■ 

■ 

1  . 

'  i: 


Con.  Globe, 

Appendix, 

S34-S37. 
Il,?7-ii39- 


Sanborn, 
Cong. 
Grant''  of 
Land  in  Aid 
of  Rys., 
Ch.  1, 11. 


Meyer, 
Railway 
Legislation, 
Pt.  n,  Ch.  I, 
Appendix  I. 

Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
346-347. 


U.  S.  (  ensus, 
t»So.  IV. 
Rept.  on 

Roads,  12, 
289,  ;qo. 


250      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Financing  of  the  Roads.  —  This  result  could  hardly 
have  been  achieved  without  national  assistance.  Several 
of  the  Eastern  roads  had  been  built  with  state  aid.  Mary- 
land had  subscribed  $3,000,000  to  the  stock  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio ;  Massachusetts  had  loaned  $4,000,000  to 
the  Great  Western;  Pennsylvania,  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia  had  undertaken  to  finance  their  initial  roads. 
The  new  Western  states  were  hardly  adequate  to  these 
costly  enterprises,  and  they  appealed  to  Congress  for  aid. 
Following  the  precedent  of  land  grants  to  canal  projects. 
Congress  made  over  (1850)  a  tract  of  two  million  seven 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  public  land  to  the  state  of 
Illinois  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  her  Central  Railway 
from  Chicago  to  Cairo.  Similar  grants  were  made  to 
Florida  and  Alabama  and  Mi-^sissippi.  The  Mobile  and 
Ohio,  the  first  through  route  from  North  to  South,  was 
likewise  built  with  the  proceeds  of  land  grants.  This  line, 
together  with  the  Mississippi  Central,  was  carried  through 
to  the  Gulf  in  1858-1859,  the  years  immediately  preceding 
the  Civil  War. 

These  early  railways  were,  with  few  exceptions,  built 
by  joint  stock  companies  chartered  by  the  state  legislatures. 
The  charter  was  essential  to  the  incorporation  of  the 
stockholders  and  to  the  securing  of  the  right  of  way. 
Land  for  the  laying  of  the  track  was  usually  given,  both 
public  and  private  owners  regarding  the  advantage  accru- 
ing from  improved  transportation  as  full  compensation 
for  such  concessions.  The  older  states  imposed  certain 
stipulations  intended  to  guard  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munities to  bf  ser\'ed.  The  rate  of  dividend  was  limited 
(to  ten  per  c^nt  in  New  England,  to  twelve  per  cent  in 
Pennsylvania)  by  the  provision  that  excess  profits  must  be 
divided  with  the  state  or  charges  reduced.  Freight  and 
passenger  rates  were  to  be  held  within  a  fixed  maximum  — 
six,  five,  four,  and  three  cents  a  mile  for  passengers,  five, 
three,  and  two  cents  per  ton  mile  on  freight.  The  term 
of  the  charter  was  limited,  and  in  some  cases,  e.g.  the 
Pennsylvania  Central,  the  state  reserved  the  right  to  pur- 


RAILROAD 
COXSTRUCTION 

Prom  1830  to  1860 

—  189)  -  1*40 
•i 1S<0.1S30 

i        jiji      fco      A)'"Th 


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i 


r 


=  !, 


Ml 


II 


if 


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s 

Hi 

I 

1  1 

Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     251 


chase  and  operate  the  road  after  the  lapse  of  from  fifteen 
to  twenty-five  years.  In  the  first  decade  of  railway  con- 
struction, there  were  built  and  equipped  2264  miles  at  a 
cost  of  $100,000,000;  in  the  second  decade,  5045  miles 
at  a  cost  of  $250,000,000;  in  the  third  decade,  20,109 
miles  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,000,000. 

Little  of  this  enormous  expenditure  could  be  expected 
to  bring  in  an  immediate  return.  In  the  densely  populated 
and  highly  productive  sections  of  the  country,  a  railroad 
investment  might  net  a  handsome  revenue,  and  here  the 
average  rate  of  dividend  was  eight  and  one  half  per  cent. 
But  in  the  sparsely  settled  districts  of  the  West  and 
South,  investors  must  wait  a  score  of  years  for  their 
returns  and  run  the  risk  of  finding  their  stock  valueless 
in  the  end. 

To  the  community  at  large  the  railroad  was,  in  this  initial 
period,  an  unmixed  benefit.  Construction  created  a 
demand  for  rails  and  structural  iron  that  proved  a  boon 
to  the  forges  and  foundries,  while  track-laying,  machine 
and  car  shops,  gave  employment  to  an  army  of  laborers, 
skilled  and  unskilled.  The  new  transportation  system 
meant  enhanced  prices  for  crops  and  lands  all  along  the 
Une  of  the  road.  It  halved  the  cost  and  quartered  the 
time  of  journeying  by  stage,  and  brought  opportunity  for 
travel  within  reach  of  people  of  moderate  means.  The 
building  of  railroads  meant,  too,  the  extension  of  the  postal 
service  and  the  cheapening  of  postage.  The  government 
was  able  to  reduce  the  charge  of  sending  letters  from  ten, 
twenty-five,  and  fifty  cents  per  letter  to  a  uniform  rate 
of  three  cents. 

The  Electric  Telegraph.  —  Hand  in  hand  with  the  ex- 
tension of  railroads  went  the  system  of  communication  by 
telegraph.  The  sending  of  verbal  messages  along  an  elec- 
tric wire  had  been  rendered  practicable  by  S.  F.  B.  Morse, 
11^  1835,  but  it  was  long  before  business  men  were  convinced 
that  this  was  a  promising  \-entiire.  In  1S44  Congress  ap- 
propriated $30,000  for  the  building  of  a  line  from  Wash- 
ington to  Baltimore.    The  following  year  a  line  was  run 


De  Bow, 
II,  4Q4. 


Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
339-342- 


Bym, 
Ch.  III. 


Jones, 
Sketch  of 
the  Electric 
Telegraph, 
Ch.  VIII. 


'^'Wn 


;  I 


Lardncr, 
Electric 
Telegraph, 
Ch.  XII. 


Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
Ch.  XV. 


Intnan, 
Great  Salt 
Lake  Trail, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Stimson, 
Express 
Business. 


252      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  by  a  private  company, 
and  the  system  was  soon  after  extended  to  Wilmington 
and  Baltimore.  Connections  between  New  York  and 
Boston,  New  York  and  Albany,  Albany  and  Buffalo,  were 
ma-'  in  1846-1847.  In  1848  Ezra  Cornell  built  a  tele- 
graph. Une  from  New  York  to  Cleveland,  Toledo,  Detroit, 
Chicago,  and  Milwaukee.  In  the  same  year  a  line  was 
run  from  Washington  to  New  Orleans,  connecting  the  sea- 
board cities. 

The  inst Jlation  of  a  telegraph  line  is  a  far  simpler  and 
cheaper  enterprise  than  the  building  of  a  railroad,  and 
the  electric  wires  overspread  the  eastern  half  of  the  United 
States  with  marvelous  rapidity.  Communication  with 
the  Pacific  Coast  was  a  much  more  difficult  proposition. 
From  1852  to  i860  the  overiand  mails  were  carried  by  the 
famous  Pony  Express  —  a  relay  system  of  rapid  riders  — 
via  the  Salt  Lake  Trail.  Encouraged  by  the  prospect  of 
a  subsidy  of  $40,000  per  year  from  the  United  States  gov- 
eri.aient,  the  Western  Union  Company  carried  a  telegraph 
line  across  the  Cordilleran  Range  in  1861. 

Express  Companies.  —  It  was  a  Massachusetts  man, 
William  F.  Harnsden,  who  inaugurated  the  business  of 
transporting  valuable  freight  under  private  guard.    He 
began  carrying  packages  between  New  York  and  Boston 
(1839)  in  his  own  valise,  delivering  the  goods  in  pe-son  to 
the  consignees.    The  trip  was  made  three  times  a  week, 
by  rail  to  Providence  and  thence  by  steamer  to  New  York ; 
but  the  business  developed  rapidly  and  he  soon  arranged  for 
an  express  car  and  a  special  cabin  on  the  Stonington  Steam- 
ship Line.     An  office  was  opened  in  New  York  and  another 
in  Philadelphia,  and  a  Hudson  River  service  was  organized 
with  a  branch  office  at  Albany  (1841).    Henry  Wells,  the 
agent  at  Albany,  proposed  to  extend  the  service  to  Buffalo, 
but  to  Harnsden  this  seemed  too  hazardous  a  venture, 
and  the  western  business  was  organized  by  an  independent 
comiJaixy.    The  Albany  and  Buffalo  Express  covered  the 
distance  by  railroad  and  stage  in  four  nights  and  three  days, 
the  packages  being  packed  in  one  trunk  and  intrusted  to 


\  • 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     253 

Wells'  personal  supervision.  In  1845  Wells  and  Fargo 
started  the  Western  Express  to  Cincinnati,  Chicago, 
and  St.  Louis,  Fargo  acting  as  messenger.  The  company's 
stages  ran  far  in  advance  of  railroads  and  carried  thousands 
of  emigrants  and  their  outfits  into  the  frontier  set' lements. 
The  charge  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  was  $4  per  hundred- 
weight, to  Detroit  $6,  and  to  St.  Louis  $8,  an  excess  of  $10 
being  added  for  winter  service.  Letters  were  carried  for 
five  cents  while  the  United  States  post-oftice  was  still  charg- 
ing twenty-five,  and  the  government  would  have  been 
driven  out  of  the  letter  carrying  business  throughout  the 
express  company's  territory  but  for  the  timely  reduction 
in  the  price  of  stamps.  Money  also  was  transported  so 
securely  that  the  rate  of  exchange  between  New  York 
and  Chicago  fell  from  3  per  cent  to  the  mere  cost  of  trans- 
portation. 

Meantime  Harnsden,  ambitious  to  extend  his  special 
delivery  system  to  Europe,  had  made  arrangements  with 
the  Enoch  Train  Line  of  packet  ships  to  accommodate 
his  messengers  and  their  charge  and  established  offices  in 
Liverpool,  Havre,  and  Paris.  Not  goods  only,  but  pas- 
sengers, were  intrusted  to  the  care  of  the  company.  Ad- 
vertisements of  cheap  and  safe  transportation  from  Liver- 
pool to  New  York,  Buffalo,  and  Chicago  were  posted  in  all 
the  principal  towns  of  Great  Britain,  and  passenger  agents 
were  sent  through  Europe  to  solicit  patronage.  It  was 
Harnsden's  ambition  that  every  immigrant  arriving  in 
New  York  or  Boston  should  be  consigned  to  his  express 
company,  and  he  secured  control  of  the  bulk  of  the  steerage 
accommodations.  Fully  one  hundred  thousand  people  were 
brought  over  to  .\merica  by  this  agency  in  the  first  five  years 
of  Its  existence.  After  Harnsden's  death  (1845)  the  com- 
pany purclu:,e<j  a  '-'.^  of  steamships  to  run  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  anot  for  the  coast  service,  touching  at 
Savannah,  Mobile,  Vew  Orleans,  and  Galveston  ;  but  these 
investments  proved  ill-advised.  The  management  got  into 
hnancial  difficulties  and  was  forced  to  merge  its  interests 
with  the  newly  organized  Adams  Express  Company  (1854). 


I 


\hif 


Hittell, 

Hist. 

(  alif ornia, 

iV,  380-40* 


Bolles,  II, 
Hk.  HI,  Ch. 
VI,  VII 

Bishop.  II, 
MQ-474 

Taussig, 
TarifT  Hist, 
of  the  r.S.. 
IOQ-IS4 
Dewey,  in 

2,<Q.  21)0    i5 ■ 
363-2(15. 

Kiibheno, 
i84-Tgg. 


254      Industnal  History  of  the  United  States 

In  1852  WePs  and  Fargo  sold  out  to  the  Ar-  ttlLaU  F,x- 
press  Company  and  transferred  their  enterpri  c  to  Cali- 
fornia. Goods  consigned  to  them  were  carriec  ui  -r.  New- 
York  to  San  Frau Cisco  via  Panama  at  a  charg:j  v  f  forty 
cents  per  pound.  A  messenger  service  was  maintamcu 
with  every  mining  camp  in  the  Sierras,  and  gold  dust  col- 
lected from  the  diggings  was  transported  direct  to  New 
York  and  London.  The  Wells  Fargo  Express  Company 
received  $56,000,000  in  gold  in  1857,  of  which  sum  only 
$9,000,000  was  billed  to  the  Atlantic  states.  Letters  and 
camp  supplies  were  dispatched  to  the  miners  by  the  same 
trusty  messengers,  who  often  furnished  the  only  regular 
means  of  communication  with  the  civilized  world.  When 
the  Nevada  silver  deposits  were  opened  up,  Weils  Fargo 
built  a  stage  road  over  the  mountains  to  Virginia  City,  on 
which  six  to  t.ght  coaches  a  day  were  kept  busy  conveying 
passengers  up  to  the  mines  and  bulUon  down.  An  over- 
land stage  route  via  Santa  Fe  was  started  in  1S58,  making 
a  run  of  twenty-five  days  between  St.  Louis  and  San  Diego. 
The  Overland  Stage  line  via  Salt  Lake  was  taken  over  in 
1865,  and  thenceforward  Wells  Fargo  dominated  the  ex- 
press traffic  of  the  CordilL/an  region. 

Influence  of  Revenue  Tari£fs 

This  period  of  industrial  expansion  was  coincident  with 
a  period  of  low  import  duties.  The  gradual  reduction 
of  the  tariff  provided  for  in  the  compromise  of  183,^  had 
been  consistently  carried  out,  and  the  horizontal  scale  of 
20  i)er  cent  was  reached  in  1842.  This  minimum  taritT 
was  in  operation  but  two  months  (July  and  August),  and 
then  tht  advocates  of  protection  secured  a  brief  lease  ol 

)wer.  With  a  view  to  making  political  capital  out  o! 
..enefits  conferred,  the  Whig  majority  in  Congress  enacti<l 
a  '  imposing  heavy  duties  on  salt,  glass,  iron,  cotton, 
w'...^n.  and  silk  manufactures,  industricr,  represented  in 
New  England  and  the  Middle  states.  The  West  was  in 
different  t(   •ihe  measure,  the  South  was  distinctly  hostile 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   T.  riffs     ^55 


and  the  unqualified  Democratic  victory  of  1844  gave  the 
opponents  of  protection  their  opportunity.  In  his  annual 
report  of  December,  1845,  R.  J.  Walker,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  demonstrated  that  the  prevailing  customs 
duties  imposed  a  tax  of  $81,000,000  upon  consumers  in  the 
way  of  enhanced  prices,  while  they  brought  to  the  govern- 
ment a  revenue  of  only  $27,000,000.  He  {)roposed  that 
tariff  legislation  should  be  determined  by  financial  con- 
siderations solely,  and  that  the  import  duties  should 
be  laid  in  accordance  with  sound  principles  of  taxation. 
Rates  should  be  fixed  at  the  point  that  would  insure  the 
ma.\imum  return  over  and  above  the  cost  of  collection, 
protection  being  a  minor  considci  ation.  High  duties  might 
suitably  be  imposed  on  luxuries,  but  the  raw  materials  of 
manufacture  and  the  necessities  of  life  should  be  admitted 
under  low  duties  or  placed  on  the  free  list.  The  argument 
that  protection  to  manufactures  insured  high  wages  to 
labor.  Walker  declared  to  be  delusive.  Wages  had  not 
risen  under  the  Whig  tariff,  but  the  cost  of  living  had 
certainly  been  advanced.  The  "  American  system " 
taxed  twenty  million  people  for  the  benefit  of  four  hundred 
thousand  operatives,  whose  opportunity  for  employment 
was  dearly  bought,  and  ot  ten  thousand  manufacturers, 
who  were  reaping  a  higher  rate  of  profit  than  any  other 
class  in  the  community. 

Walker  believed  that  the  reduction  of  our  import  duties 
on  manufactures  would  lead  to  the  repeal  of  the  English 
Corn  Laws  and  the  opening  of  British  ports  to  our  agri- 
cultural products.  The  reciprocal  trade  thus  engendered 
would  greatly  benefit  our  farmers  and  planters,  whose 
crops  of  wheat  and  cotton  had  outgrown  the  capacity 
of  the  home  market,  and  our  merchants,  who  must  profit 
from  the  augmentation  of  commerce.  In  the  debate  upon 
the  Democratic  tariff  bill,  the  antagonism  between  the 
manufacturing  and  agricultural  sections  of  the  country 
became  evident.  Reduction  of  the  protective  duties  was 
opposed  by  Xew  England  and  the  Middle  states,  but 
favored  by  the  farmers  and  planters  of  the  West  and  South. 


Thompson, 
Hist,  of  Pro- 
tective Tariff 
Laws,  Ch. 
XXXIX, 
XL. 

Executive 
Documents, 
29lh  Cong., 
I  St  Session, 
n.  No.  6. 


Slanwood, 
II,  Ch.  XL 

Taussig, 
State  Papers 
and  Speeches 
on  the  Tariff 
214-251. 


Wages  and 

Pr'ces, 

424-427. 


Wi 


]i  ■' 


-i 


S;  !  {  - 


m 


ii'-ii 


Stanwood, 
II,  Ch  XIL 


Levi,  Hist, 
of  Brit. 
Commerce, 
Pt.  IV, 
Ch.  IV. 
0  and  10 
Victoria, 

c.  12. 


Tie  Bow. 
I.  9f>- 


256      Indus f rial  F' story  of  the  United  States 

In  the  Wall  t  Tariff  (July,  1846)  imports  were  classed 
under  four  principal  categories.  In  Schedule  A  were 
listed  injurious  luxuries,  such  as  absinthe,  brandy,  and  all 
other  liquors  and  spirits.  On  these  a  revenue  duty  of 
100  per  cent  was  levied.  Schedule  B  comprised  other 
less  obnoxious  luxuries,  such  as  nuts,  spices,  sweetmeats, 
cigars,  snuff,  and  manufactured  tobacco.  Such  imports 
paid  a  high  revenue  duty  of  40  per  cent.  Schedule  C 
covered  with  a  30  per  cent  import  duty  the  industries  that 
might  reasonably  demand  protection,  such  as  pig  iron  and 
iron  manufactures,  wool  and  manufactures  of  wool,  ready- 
made  clothing  of  all  descriptions,  manufactures  of  leather, 
paper,  wood,  glass,  molasses,  and  sugar.  In  Schedule  1) 
were  classed  the  indastries  now  fully  established,  such  as  low- 
grade  cottons,  woolens,  and  silks.  In  general  the  raw  mate- 
rials of  manufacture  paid  but  15  per  cent,  and  the  three 
cents  per  pound  duty  on  raw  cotton  was  finally  abandoned 
as  "  inoperative  and  delusive."  There  was  a  long  free  list. 
Salt  for  the  first  time  in  our  national  history  was  admitted 
duty  free ;  tea  and  coffee,  the  luxuries  of  the  poor,  were 
left  untaxed  ;  the  interests  of  the  farmers  were  looked  after 
in  a  tax  of  30  per  cent  on  hemp  and  leaf  tobacco,  on  cheese, 
vegetables,  etc. ;  the  interests  of  the  cotton  planters,  more 
than  half  of  whose  product  was  then  being  exported  to 
England,  were  furthered  by  a  drawback  of  half  the  duty 
on  cotton  bagging  when  used  for  wrapping  bales  sent  to 
the  foreign  market. 

The  repeal  of  British  duties  on  foodstuffs,  anticipated 
in  Walker's  rejwrt,  was  already  being  debated  by  Parlia- 
ment. An  act  of  June  26,  1846,  reduced  the  tax  on  wheal, 
barley,  oats,  rye,  beans,  and  Indian  corn  to  a  mere  nominal 
rate.  The  year  following  the  duties  were  suspended,  ami 
they  were  soon  abrogated  altogether.  The  free  list  \va> 
rapidly  extended,  until  by  1849  all  our  agricultural  prod 
ucts,  except  tobacco,  were  admitted  to  England  free  of 
duty,  even  when  carried  in  American  bottoms.  Our  ex- 
fHjrts  of  wheat  rose  immediately  from  840,000  bushels  in 
1845  to  17,273,000  in  1847;   01  •  exports  of  wheat  flour 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     257 


from  1,195,000  barrels  in  1845  to  4,383,000  in  1847. 
Prices  rose  with  the  famine  demand,  and  the  American 
farmer  reaped  a  rich  har\est  from  the  necessities  of  the  Irish 
peasant.  England's  population  had  outgrown  the  normal 
capacity  of  her  fields,  so  that  American  farmers  were  assured 
a  permanent  market.  The  total  value  of  the  cereals  ex- 
ported in  1849  amounted  to  822,531,465,  and  this  phenom- 
enal bowing  was  maintained  in  later  years.  The  balance 
of  trade  turned  in  our  favor,  since  Great  Britain  was  obliged 
to  pay  for  these  extraordinary  receipts  in  gold  and  silver. 


TONNACC 
CF 

V[S-.:i5 
5,5(.I.Ij00 

5,250,000 

2,0C0,0CC 
'75L.C0C 
I. SCO  uOO 
I.25CX0C 
I.CCC.COO 
750,000 
500.000 

2Ei  sor 


EXPORTS  AND  IMPORTS 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

AND  TONNAGE  OF 

UNITED  STATES  VESSELS 

REGISTERED  FOR  FOREIGN  TRADE 

1789- i860 

•  .-....Exports 

'nnn.-.rttt 

.. T,,r,nige 


J^-'^ 


-/I- 


VJIUF  ff 

IVPCnT*.    \Hn 

IN    DOLLAf^S 

fOO.CCCOOO 
450.000.000 
4C0.0C0.C00 
350,000,000 
300,000,000 

:5o.ooo,ooo 
roi.cjo.ooo 

IJO.CCCOOO 

lOu.OCCOCO 

50,000.000 


U.  S.  Census, 

i-1 

iHtii\ 

1 

ARrituIturc, 

i  ■« 

cxl. 

11 

In  his  report  of  December,  1846,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  commented  thus  on  the  eilect  of  six  months' 
operation  of  the  Democratic  Tariff.     "  We  are  beginning  CnR.  Globe 
to  realize  the  benefits  of  the  new  tarifT.  ...     By  free  in-   i^i'^'^n, 
terchange  of  commtxlities  the  foreign  market  is  opened  fj"*''"'^'^' 
to  our  agricultural  products,  our  tonnage  and  commerce 
are  rapidly  augmenting,  our  exports  enlarged,  and  the 
price  enhanced ;  exchanges  are  in  our  favor,  and  specie  is 
flowing  within  our  limits.     The  country  was  never  more 
prosperous  and  we  have  never  enjoyed  such  large  and 


I 


11'' 


i  il. 


258      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

profitable  markets  for  all  our  products.  This  is  not  the 
result  of  an  inflated  currency,  but  is  an  actual  increase  of 
wealth  and  business.  While  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
navigation,  released  from  onerous  taxes  and  restrictions, 
are  thus  improved  and  invigorated,  manufactures  are  not 
depi^ssed.  The  large  profits  of  manufacturers  may  be 
in  some  cases  somewhat  diminished,  but  that  branch  of 
industry,  now  reposing  more  on  its  own  skill  and  resources, 
is  still  prosperous  and  progressive.  New  manufactories 
are  being  erected  throughout  the  country,  and  still  yield 
a  greater  profit  in  most  cases  than  capital  invested  in 
other  pursuits." 
stanwooa.  The  Tariff  of  1857.  -  The  low  tariff  held  for  ten  years, 

II,  10Q-126.     and,  financially  at  least,  it  was  a  marked  success.     In 
1854-1856  the  revenues  from  customs  exceeded  the  normal 
expenditure  of  the  government.     Secretary  Walker  ad- 
vised a  general  reduction  of  import  duties  in  order  to 
"reduce   the   surplus   revenue    and   the   constant  influx 
of  specie  into  the  vaults  of  the  treasury."     The  Tariff  .\ct 
passed  in  1857  cut  down  the  rates  on  Schedules  A  antl 
B  to  30  per  cent,  while  duties  on  the  protected  products 
represented  in  Schedule  C  were  reduced  to  24  per  cent. 
The  25  per  cent  rate  of  Schedule  D  was  reduced  to  19  per 
cent,  but  manufacturers  received  adequate  compensation  in 
the  reduction  of  the  tax  on  their  imported  raw  materials. 
For  example,  the  duties  on  i)ig  and  bar  iron  and  hemp  were 
reduced  from  30  to  24  per  cent,  that  on  wool  from  30  to  S 
per  cent;    flax  and  dyestuffs  were  admitted  free.     T\i\< 
abatement  of  protection  to  their  special  interests  called 
out  strong  opposition  in  the  Middle  and  Western  states, 
but  the  Southern  vote  was  given  for  the  reduced  rates. 

The  Infant  Industries  come  of  Age.  -  Government 
sup|)ort  once  withdrawn,  the  protected  industries  proved 
vigorous  enough  to  stand  alone.  The  growth  of  popula- 
tion meant  an  increase  j  demand  sufficient  to  absorb  both 
the  domestic  product  and  the  imported  goods.  Ocean 
freights  were  in  most  cases  a  sufficient  handicap  on  the 
foreign  manufacturer. 


EVOLUTION   OK  THK   RkaIK 


1. 


I, 


-   c 


i  I 


r>  - 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     259 


The  iron  industry  flourished,  for,  though  importations 
of  English  rolled  iron  increased,  American  ironmasters 
held  their  full  share  of  the  market.  Competition  forced 
them  to  abandon  the  old  method  of  hammering  out  bar  iron 
in  a  forge  fired  by  charcoal,  and  to  adopt  the  cheaper  fuel, 
coal,  and  the  less  expensive  process  of  puddling  and  rolling. 
The  juxtaposition  of  iron  and  bituminous  coal  in  the 
western  Alleghanies,  coupled  with  improved  transporta- 
tion facilities,  gave  the  Pennsylvania  iron  manufacturers 
advantages  fully  equivalent  to  those  of  their  English  ri\als. 
As  the  domestic  price  fell  (from  $85  per  ton  in  1844  to  $58 
in  i860),  freights  became  an  increasingly  effective  de- 
terrent on  importations. 

Cotton  manufactures  were  also  developing  during  this 
period  of  low  duties.  Inventions  multiplied  until  Ameri- 
can machinery  was  fully  equal  to  the  English,  and  American 
labor  proved  more  economical  because,  though  better  paid, 
it  was  more  efficient ;  moreover,  raw  cotton  was  cheaper  in 
the  United  States  market  by  the  difTerehce  in  cost  of  trans- 
portation, amounting  to  two  cents  a  pound.  The  market 
for  cheap  cotton  goods  was  developing,  not  only  in  North 
and  South  America,  but  in  the  Orient.  Our  exports  of 
cotton  goods  rose  from  $3,00x5,000  per  year  in  1838  to 
$11,000,000  in  i860.  The  number  of  spindles  operated  in 
the  United  States  doubled,  and  our  consumption  of  raw 
cotton  trebled  in  the  same  twenty  years.  New  England  was 
still  the  center  of  this  important  industry,  his  advantages 
in  the  way  of  water  power  and  skilled  labor  enabling 
the  Yankee  entrepreneur  to  produce  the  goods  at  low  cost. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
128-135. 

Swank,  Ch. 
XLI,  XLII. 

Bishop,  II, 
48Q-492. 

Census, 
i860. 
Manufac- 
tures, 
clxv-clxvi. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S.. 
135-142- 

Bishop,  II, 
494-406. 


Census, 
iSbo,  Manu- 
factures, 
x-xx. 


Growth  of  Cotton  Manitfacture  in  the  United  States 


Year 


1S40 
i860 


NcHBER  or 

Spindles 


-.-34,631 
5,235.727 


Hales  of  rorroN 

Co.VSlMEP 


078,000 


EMPlOyEES 


72,1IQ 

132.028 


% 


if 


;!l! 


m 


•  u 


.   I 


Taussig, 
TarifiE  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
143-152- 

Bishop,  II, 
496-497. 
Census, 
t86o,  Manu- 
factures, 
xxv-xxxiv, 
li-lix. 

Bishop,  II, 
474-482. 


Byrn, 
Progress  of 
Invention, 
Ch.  XIX. 


U.  S.  Census, 
1S60, 
Manufac- 
tures, lix- 
ixvi. 

U  S.  Census, 
1 000,  IX, 
»S9-3iO- 


U.S.  Census, 
1S60,  Manu- 
factures, 
Ixvii-l.xxii. 


260      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  woolen  manufacturers  labored  under  a  special  dis- 
advantage in  that  domestic  wool  was  inadequate  both  in 
quantity  and  quality.  The  retention  of  the  duty  on  the 
finer  grades  of  raw  wool  rendered  the  imported  fiber  so 
expensive  that  the  manufacturers  were  confined  to  the  mak- 
ing of  cheap  satinets,  broadcloths,  flannels,  and  blankets. 
The  only  notable  gains  of  this  period  were  due  to  the  in- 
vention of  power  looms  for  the  weaving  of  knit  goods  and 
the  manufacture  of  ingrain  and  Brussels  carpets. 

Notable  Inventions.  —  Under  the  stimulus  of  the  patent 
law,  improved  machinery  was  being  introduced  into  every 
branch  of  manufacture.     From  1840  to  1850  patents  were 
granted  at  the  rate  of  646  per  year.     Most  notable  among 
the  inventions  affecting  manufactures   was   the  sewing- 
machine.     Elias  Howe  brought  out  his  invention  in  1846. 
The  machine  proved  an  immediate  success,  and  Howe 
made  a  fortune  from  its  sale.     Improved  patents  were 
soon  put  upon  the  market,  but  the  rival  manufacturers 
entered  into  an  agreement  (1856)  for  the  merging  of  their 
rights  and  the  division  of  royalties.     I.  M.  Singer  intro- 
duced the  method  of  sale  by  installments,  and  by  this 
means  the  labor-saving  device  was  brought  within  reach 
of  the  poor.     The  output  in  1853  was  2266  machines  ;  si.x 
years  later  it  was  42,539.     The  advantages  accruing  to 
the  large  workshop  by  the  division  of  labor  and  super- 
intendence of  details,  speedily  converted  the  manufacture 
of  ready-made  clothing  from  a  domestic  to  a  factory  in- 
dustry.    The  capital  inx-ested  in  this  business  doubled  be- 
tween 1850  and  i860,  and  the  value  of  the  output  increased 
from  $48,000,000  to  $80,000,000,  but  the  number  of  em- 
ployees increased  only  19  per  cent  in  the  same  interx'al. 
The  saving   in  wages   reduced   the  cost   of  the  factory 
product  to  one  fourth  that  of  the  liund-stitched  garment. 
The  duty  on  ready-made  clothing  was  omitted  in  the  tariff 

of  1857. 

The  mo.st  important  application  of  the  sewing-machine 
was  made  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes.  The  invention  of  a 
needle  that  could  carry  a  wax  thread  throut';h  leather,  con- 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     261 


verted  the  making  of  boots  and  shoes  into  a  factory  in- 
dustry in  the  last  decade  before  the  Civil  War.  In  1861 
McKay  invented  a  machine  for  sewing  soles  to  uppers 
more  cheaply  than  pegs  could  be  driven,  even  by  machinery. 
This  automatic  needle  enabled  a  skilled  workman  to  sew  the 
soles  on  to  nine  hundred  pairs  of  shoes  in  a  ten-hour  day. 
The  labor  cost  of  the  machine-made  shoe  was  reduced  to 
one  eleventh  of  that  of  the  hand-sewn  article.  So  pre- 
eminent were  our  advantages  in  this  branch  of  manufac- 
ture, that  the  import  duty  might  now  have  been  abohshed 
but  for  the  offsetting  duty  on  leather. 

Agricultural  Machinery.  —  American  agriculture  was 
carried  on  in  wasteful,  unscientific  fashion  until  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Farm  implements  were  of 
the  rudest.  Spades,  mattocks,  pitchforks,  and  plows 
were  still  of  home  manufacture,  the  iron  parts  being 
clumsily  wrought  over  a  blacksmith's  forge.  In  1807 
Peacock  succeeded  in  popularizing  his  iron  plowshare  in 
New  Jersey,  and  in  the  next  decade  Smith's  plow  came  into 
general  use  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  The  cast-iron  mold- 
board  was  not  only  cheaper  than  the  plated  wooden  share, 
but  stronger  and  more  effective,  because  it  offered  less 
resistance  to  the  soil.  More  than  twelve  thousand  patents 
have  since  been  issued  for  improvements  in  the  structure 
of  the  plow. 

Patents  for  an  automatic  mower  were  taken  out  by  Obed 
Ilussey,  of  Baltimore,  December  31,  1833,  and  by  Cyrus 
H.  McCormick  of  Rockbridge,  Virginia,  in  the  following 
Juno.  These  reapers  enabled  one  man  with  a  team  of 
horses  to  cut  as  much  grain  as  twenty  men  swinging  a 
cradle.  Hands  were  scarce  in  the  new  West,  and  farmers 
eagerly  availed  themseh-es  of  this  labor-saving  device. 
There  were  three  machines  manufactured  in  1840,  three 
thousand  in  1850,  and  twenty  thousand  in  i860.  Since 
the  princij)al  market  was  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley, 
the  manufacture  gravitated  it)  this  section.  McCormick's 
hrst  reaper  was  made  at  a  blacksmith's  shop  in  the  Shen- 
and()ah  \'alley.  In  1846  the  works  were  transferred  to 
Cmcmnati,  in  1849  to  Chicago. 


U.  S.  Census, 

IQOO,  IX, 

730-738, 
754-758. 


Bailey, 
Cyclopedia 
of  Agricul- 
ture, IV, 
Ch.  11. 

U.  S.  Census, 
ii6o.  Agri- 
culture, 
xi-xxiv. 

U.  S.  Census, 
1900, 

X,  352-053. 
358-304. 

Holmes, 
Progress  of 
Agr.  in  U.S. 

Bym, 
Ch.  XVI. 

Thwaite's 
McCormick. 

Casson, 
Romance  of 
the  Reaper. 

Quaintance, 
Influence  of 
Farm  Ma- 
chinery. 

Roberts, 
Fertility  of 
the  Land, 
Ch.  II. 


P 


i 


f . 


';'  \l 


,1 


M   i   : 


Jt  .J         * 

Mil; 


I       I 


Census,  igoo, 
X,  560-569- 


Marvin, 
Ch.XI,  XII. 
Bates, 
164-170. 


262      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Labor-saving  machinery  and  cheapened  transportation 
greatly  increased  the  output  of  the  Western  farms.  Wheat 
and  corn,  wool  and  cotton,  were  'Hspatched  to  the  manu- 
facturing centers  of  the  East  or  shipped  abroad  in  un- 
precedented volume.  The  farmer's  only  thought  was  to 
produce  as  much  as  his  land  would  yield,  without  regard 
to  the  Umitations  of  his  market.  The  effect  was  a  speedy 
glut  of  the  market,  which  brought  about  a  ruinous  drop 
in  prices. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  —  The  use  of  fertilizers  with 
which  to  nourish  exhausted  soils  came  into  use  in  this 
period.  One  thousand  tons  of  guano  were  brought  to  the 
United  States  in  1848.  The  importation  steadily  in- 
creased in  the  decade  following,  and  amounted  to  sixty 
thousand  tons  in  1856.  But  the  Peruvian,  as  well  as  the 
Mexican,  supply  was  soon  exhausted,  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  mechanical  fertilizers  was  undertaken  by  an  enter- 
prising physician  of  Baltimore.  The  essential  plant  food 
was  derived  from  bones,  shells,  and  phosphate  rock,  pot- 
ash, and  ammoniates.  The  refuse  of  fish  canneries  and 
slaughterhouses  also  was  converted  into  nutriment  for 
growing  crops. 

Development  of  Commerce 

Shipbuilding.  —  Our  free-trade  epoch  witnessed  a  doub- 
ling and  trebling  in  the  volume  of  foreign  trade,  and  a 
corresponding  increase  in  our  merchant  marine.  After  a 
long  period  of  depression,  the  shipbuilding  industry  re- 
covered the  prestige  of  former  days,  and  the  tonnage 
figures  of  1810  were  finally  surpassed  in  1846.  During 
the  next  fifteen  years  there  was  a  steady  increase  in  our 
ocean  tonnage,  which  amounted  to  2,500,000  tons  in  1861. 
These  were  prosperous  times  for  American  shipyards. 
We  had  oak  and  hard  pine  in  plenty  and  the  best  ship- 
wrights in  the  world.  Skilled  artisans  from  all  countries 
flocked  to  Bath,  Salem,  East  Boston,  New  London, 
New   York,    Philadelphia,   Wilmington,  and   Baltimore, 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     263 


to  avail  themselves  of  the  high  wages  paid  by  the  leading 
builders.  The  construction  of  a  schooner  of  five  hundred 
tons  cost  $37,500  in  the  United  Stales  and  $42,000  in 
England.  With  this  advantage  we  were  able  to  build  all 
our  own  ships  and  to  sell  many  abroad.  The  British 
embargo  on  American-built  ships  was  removed  in  1849,  and 
this  important  market  was  opened  to  us.  In  spite  of  the 
discriminations  against  American-built  vessels  imposed  in 
Lloyd's  insurance  rates,  many  ships  were  "  sold  foreign  " 
at  a  fair  profit. 

All  along  the  New  England  coast,  wherever  cove  or 
river  mouth  gave  convenient  launching  room,  smaller 
vessels  were  building,  —  schooners  for  local  trade  and 
smacks  for  the  fishing  fleet.  Many  a  Yankee  skipper 
built  his  own  vessel,  manned  it  with  friends  and  neighbors, 
and  made  independent  commercial  ventures  up  and  down 
the  coast.  Captain  and  crew  were  bred  to  the  sea  and 
excelled  in  skill  and  daring,  so  that  American  sailors  were 
noted  in  all  ports  for  self-reliance  and  resourcefulness. 
Good  wages  and  the  standard  food  and  quarters  pre- 
scribed by  Federal  law  attracted  many  foreign  seamen  to 
our  service. 

The  great  majority  of  our  ships  were  fast  stiilmg  vessels, 
the  famous  Yankee  cUppers,  the  swiftest  and  stunchest 
craft  afloat.  Half  a  dozen  packet  lines  made  regular 
monthly  trips  from  New  York,  Boston,  or  Philadelphia  to 
Liverpool  and  Havre.  The  vessels  were  built  with  a  view 
to  speed,  and  such  was  the  seamanship  of  officers  and  men 
that  the  eastward  trip  was  usually  made  in  from  eighteen 
to  twenty  days,  the  westward  in  from  twenty-one  to  twenty- 
six  days.  The  repeal  of  the  British  Navigation  Act  1849 
admitted  American  vessels  to  traffic  between  Great  Britain 
and  her  colonies,  and  our  merchants  for  the  first  time 
secured  their  full  share  of  the  carrying  trade  between  Great 
Britain  and  European  lands.  The  reciprocity  treaty  with 
England  became  at  last  of  equal  advantage  to  both  parties. 

The  rush  to  California  brought  fast  sailing  vessels  into 
requisition  for  the  voyage  round  the  Horn,  and  vessels  of  the 


f! 


:|;! 


:1       I' 


■   !  f:i'! 


:il'    I 


Johnson, 
Ocean  and 
Inland 
Water 
Transporta- 
tion, Ch. 
III. 


Lardner, 
The  Atlantic 
Steam 
Question. 


264      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

largest  and  best  models  were  b  lilt  for  the  Pacific  trade. 
Commerce  between  Atlantic  ports  and  San  Diego  and  San 
Francisco,  by  this  route  or  by  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
was  interpreted  to  be  coastwise  trade  and  was  therefore 
restricted  to  our  own  vessels.  Extravagant  prices  were 
charged  for  transportation  of  passengers  and  freight, 
and  shipmasters  reaped  golden  profits.  Cramp  on  the 
Delaware,  Webb  on  East  River,  and  McKay  on  the  Mystic 
vied  with  one  another  in  producing  mammoth  vessels  for 
this  trade.  The  California  boom  was  hardly  spent  when 
quite  as  unexpected  an  opening  was  furnished  by  the 
Crimean  War.  The  combined  British  and  French  fleets 
were  unequal  to  the  forwarding  of  troops  and  supplies, 
and  American  vessels  were  requisitioned  for  the  transport 
service. 

Subsidy  Policy.  —  Our  very  preeminence  in  the  building 
and  navigating  of  sailing  vessels  proved  our  ultimate  un- 
doing.   The  attention  of   tht;  shipping   interest  was  so 
concentrated  on  our  fast  clippers,  that  the  greater  possi- 
bilities of  steam  were  ignored.     The  Savannah,  the  first 
steamer  to  cross  the  Atlanric  i  iSiq),  had  been  built  on  this 
side  the  water,  but  that  was  regarded  a  mere  deed  of  brav- 
ado, and  the  venture  was  n«i  followed  up.     In  England, 
on  the  contrarv.  the  scarcity  of  umlwr  forced  the  adapta- 
tion of  the  steamboat  to  ocean  c  mmerce      Both  coal  and 
iron  were  then  cheaper  in  LiSSiin:  tk.ii  m  the  United 
States,  and  the  English  go^-iT^snMst-  st  oii  ready  to  sub- 
sidize promisinu  venture?   j;  3ifc-  ic~    lel  .      The  Cunard 
Company  (i8;o    stablie^hcs  u  line  ■«  transatlantic  steamers 
and  was  accoraeti  S*-2;-:3xl  ^ni:  sar  "  io.ooo,  per  year 
for  carrying  tin   maii;   Der-wt^r   L  -frrMwl.  Halifax,  and 
Boston.     The  snnsiG^-  lar    frcetfot-    tte   cost  of   the  mail 
service,  and  wat   in  met.  -said  j*  .   tjesEus  sm  a  hazardous 
investment.     Ir    \hja  tht    "^enmsuiar  and  Oriental  Line 
to  India  and  riiiu.  anc!   tlR   PaoEc   Steam  Navigation 
Company  runni-j:;  =ceamer  ajJSE  :i»r  wcm  cuasL  uf  South 
America,  were    absamzei:  in  fef  -namer.     These  English 
lines  offered  skives  isae  nore  -snaiar  service  than  sailing 


^i  ! 


il  !,i   I 


1 1 

1     ! 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs      265 


it 
1 


vessels  could  ever  attain,  and,  being  guaranteed  against 
losses  by  government  subsidy,  bade  fair  to  drive  American 
clippers  out  of  the  transatlantic,  Asiatic,  and  South  Ameri- 
can trade. 

In  1845  our  government  came  tardily  to  the  aid  of  steam 
navigation.  The  Ocean  Steamship  Line  from  New  York 
to  Havre  and  Bremen  was  subsidized  at  the  rate  of  $200,000 
per  year.  The  Collins  Line  from  New  York  to  Liverpool 
was  ofTered  $385,000,  but  the  stipend  was  raised  to  $858,000 
because  the  vessels  built  exceeded  the  contract  stipulations. 
The  Collins  steamers,  the  largest,  swiftest,  and  most  com- 
fortable ships  of  their  day,  competed  successfully  with  the 
Cunard  Line  for  passengers  and  freight.  The  reduction  of 
freight  rates  from  £7  105.  to  £4  per  ton  seemed  an  im- 
mediate justification  of  the  subsidy  policy,  and  Congress 
bestowed  further  favors.  The  Pacific  Mail,  subsidized  to 
the  amount  of  $250,000  per  year,  sent  the  first  steamer 
round  the  Horn  in  October,  1848,  and  came  in  for  a  full 
share  of  the  profits  of  the  California  trade.  The  Law  Line 
to  Colon,  and  the  Aspinwall  from  Panama  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, were  also  subsidized. 

The  extraordinary  prosperity  of  our  shipping  interest 
was  viewed  with  concern  by  the  Southern  and  Western 
states.  All  the  subsidized  steamers,  with  the  exception 
of  a  single  line  from  Charleston  to  Havana,  sailed  from 
Northern  ports,  and  the  ships  were  built  in  the  North  At- 
lantic states.  It  was  thought  unjust  that  the  general 
government  should  expend  more  than  one  and  a  half 
million  dollars  a  year  in  support  of  an  industry  whose 
profits  were  accruing  to  a  single  section  of  the  country. 
The  Southern  planters  protested  that  their  cotton  could 
be  as  cheaply  and  safely  carried  in  British  vessels.  Sub- 
sidies had  been  advocated  by  Butler  King  of  Georgia  in  the 
belief  that  Southern  shipping  would  revive  under  such 
auspices,  but  when  these  hopes  proved  fallacious.  Southern 
statesnien  vigorously  opposed  the  steamship  bonus.  In 
1856  the  subsidy  to  the  Collins  Line  was  reduced  from 
$858,000  to  $385,000.    The  sudden  reduction  in  revenue 


Cong.  Globe, 

1852, 

1146-1149, 

1162-1167, 

1199-1205, 

1227-1231, 

1241-1246, 

1260-1267, 

1 269-1 270, 

1288-1291, 

1302-1311, 

1325-1327. 

1717-1725. 

Appendix, 

604-615, 

701-704, 

779-787, 

802-806, 

8i3-8i6, 

820-826. 


Cong.  Globe, 

1847-1848, 

Appendix, 

936-938, 

1854-1855, 
Pt.  I, 

7Si-7fe, 
774-782, 
Pt.  II,  1156. 


Sumner, 
Hist,  of  Am. 
Currency, 
160-187. 


266      Indtistrial  History  of  the  United  States 

coming  immediately  after  the  loss  of  two  great  steamers, 
wrecked  the  enterprise,  for  the  company  had  spent  all  its 
income  on  improvements  and  held  no  reserve  funds. 
The  surviving  vessels  were  sold  for  debt  and  speedily 
transferred  to  the  English  flag.  Undeterred  by  this 
melancholy  example,  Congress  proceeded  in  1858  to  limit 
all  subsidies  to  the  amount  of  sea  and  land  postage  on  the 
mails  actually  carried. 

Some  compensation  for  the  decay  of  foreign  commerce 
W3S  found  in  the  coastwise  trade,  which  offered  abundant 
scope  for  the  talents  of  an  enterprising  captain.  The 
voyage  from  Calais,  Maine,  to  Point  Isabel,  Texas,  was 
twenty-six  hundred  miles,  as  long  as  that  from  Boston  to 
Liverpool,  but  more  profitable  because  of  the  many  inter- 
mediate ports.  The  hazards  of  the  passage  round  Cape 
Hatteras  were  reduced  by  the  building  of  the  Chesapeake 
and  Albemarle  Canal  (1855-1860).  The  voyage  from 
Boston  to  Puget  Sound  was  fifteen  thousand  miles,  but 
along  this  route,  too,  stops  were  made  at  Rio  Janeiro, 
Buenos  Aires,  Valparaiso,  Callao,  San  Diego,  San  Pedro, 
San  Francisco,  and  Portland,  with  a  profitable  interchange 
of  cargo. 

The  Panic  of  1857 

Our  third  financial  panic,  like  the  first  and  the  second, 
was  caused  by  undue  speculation.  The  extraordinary 
success  of  many  business  ventures  tempted  men  to  invest 
too  heavily.  The  purchase  and  improvement  of  lands 
in  the  new  West,  the  opening  up  of  minera'.  resources,  — 
notably  coal  and  iron  in  Pennsylvania,  —  the  building  of 
ships,  the  construction  of  railroads,  all  required  large  in- 
vestments of  capital  that  could  bring  no  immediate  re- 
turn commensurate  with  expenditure.  The  $1,350,000,000 
buried  in  railways  between  1830  and  i860  represented 
an  enormous  drain  on  the  rcMJurces  of  the  country.  The 
sinking  of  one  tenth  as  much  capital  in  canals  had  wrecked 
these  enterprises  in  1837.    As  then  many  canal  ventures 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs      267 


were  abandoned,  so  now  several  Western  railroad  enter- 
prises failed.  The  New  York  and  Erie,  the  Illinois  Central, 
the  Michigan  Central,  etc.,  went  into  bankruptcy.  Doubt- 
less the  reduction  of  import  duties  in  March,  1857,  preju- 
diced such  manufacturing  interests  as  reaped  no  adequate 
compensation  from  free  raw  materials.  Some  mines  and 
factories  were  closed,  and  many  curtailed  production; 
but  the  general  depression  was  slight  as  compared  with 
that  of  twenty  years  previous.  Comparatively  few 
operatives  were  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  the  de- 
cline in  wages  was  made  good  by  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
living.  The  prosperity  of  farmers  and  planters  was  un- 
disturbed, their  foreign  market  for  corn,  wheat,  and  cotton 
being  furthered  by  free  trade. 

The  crisis  of  1857  was  primarily  a  financial  panic.  Bank 
management  had  been  conservative  and  wise  in  the  ten 
years,  1843-1853,  notably  in  the  Eastern  cities.  Few  new 
banks  were  established,  loans  were  extended  with  caution, 
and  the  issue  of  notes  was  kept  within  reasonable  limits. 
Tne  $100,000,000  worth  of  gold  sent  to  the  mints  from  the 
California  mines  furnished  a  sufficient  specie  basis  for  bank 
currency.  Credit  agencies  kept  pace  with  the  .lormal 
business  development  of  the  country.  But  in  1853  a 
speculative  mania  took  possession  of  the  financial  world. 
In  the  next  four  years  the  number  of  banking  institu- 
tions was  doubled,  credit  money  was  issued  to  the  sum  of 
$214,800,000,  more  than  double  the  amount  outstanding 
in  1847,  and  loans  ran  up  to  $684,500,000.  On  August 
22.  1857,  t.  e  obligations  of  the  New  York  banks  were 
$1 2.000,000  i.i  excess  of  their  available  Cc'pil  The  failure 
of  the  Ohio  Life  Insurance  and  Trust  Company,  on  August 
24,  dragged  down  some  leading  New  York  firms.  A  run  on 
the  banks  followed,  and  all  but  the  most  conservative 
were  obliged  to  suspend,  while  thousands  of  the  more 
speculative  business  ventures  went  to  the  wall.  There 
were  4Q32  failures  in  1857,  and  42^5  in  1858.  The  losses 
reached  an  unprecedented  figure,  $387,500,000.  but  they 
leu  largely  on  bankers  and  investors.    Tht-  rank  and  file 


Wright, 
Industrial 
Depressions, 
56-60. 

Stanwood, 
II,  iog-ii6. 

Wages  and 

Prices, 

303-308. 


Dewey, 
259-264. 

Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
63(>-640. 


Burton, 
Crises  and 
Depressions, 
282-286.  344. 


.>    I 


268      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  producers  were  little  affected  by  the  disaster,  and 
no  prolonged  depression  of  business  followed.  Industrial 
development  would  have  received  no  serious  check  but 
for  the  overwhehning  disaster  of  a  great  civil  war. 


"■'■'l\,''.v.:y.'kX>'. 


An  Old  Time  Cuppek 


■   *    f 

nil 


CHAPTER  DC 


THE  CrVTL  WAR:  ECONOMIC  CAUSES  AND 
RESULTS 

Slavery  versus  Free  Labor 

Trend  of  Southern  Opinion.  —  In  the  first  decade  of 
our  national  history,  antislavery  sentiment  was  stronger  in 
Virginia  than  in  New  England.    Washington  repeated'y 
expressed  his  conviction  that  slavery  should  be  abolished 
and  directed  his  heirs  to  set  free  his  slaves  and  provide 
for  their  education  and  maintenance  out  of  the  estate 
Jefferson  regarded  slavery  as  degrading  to  master  and  man 
ahke,  and  mtroduced  in  Uie  convention  that  formulated 
a  state  government  for  Virginia  a  bill  providing  for  gradual 
emanapation.    Children  of  slaves  bom  after  the  passage 
of  tiie  act  were  to  be  educated  at  the  public  expense  "  to 
tUlage,  arts,  or  sciences,  according  to  their  geniusses  till 
the  females  should  be  eighteen,  and  the  males  twenty^ne 
years  of  age,  when  they  should  be  colonized  to  such  place 
as  the  circumstances  of  the  time  should  render  most  proper 
sending  them  out  with  arms,  implements  of  household 
and  of  the  handicraft  arts,  seeds,  pairs  of  the  useful  domestic 
ammals,  etc.,  to  declare  them  a  free  and  independent  people, 
and  extend  to  them  our  alliance  and  protection,  till  they 
have  acquired  strength ;  and  to  send  vessels  at  the  same 

^^hite  inhabuants;  to  induce  whom  to  migi  »  hither 
proper    encouragements    were    to    be    propoi      "    The 

^Z  hu  1  f"'"^^  ^^"  "''^-^'"""  «»^he  tobacco 
planters,  but  Jeffereon  hoped  for  ultimate  success.  A  bill 
for  the  emanapation  of  slaves  was  brought  before  the 

a69 


Ingle, 

ch.  vra. 

Livermore, 
Opinions 
of  the 
Founders, 
2o-»4. 36-44. 

Writings  of 
Washington, 
X,  2io :  XI, 
35.  30 :  XIV, 
273, 381. 

Jefferson's 
Writings, 

III,  IQJ, 

24J-J50, 
266-268; 

IV.  82-84, 
184-185. 


HI 
ill 


i. 


i 


!f  i 


I  I 


Collins, 
Ch.  VII. 


Writings  of 
James 
Madison, 
IV,  303. 


Thorn, 
Negroes  of 
Sandy 
Spring. 

Washington. 
Booker,  Two 
Generations 
un<lcr 
Freedom. 

U.  S.  Census, 

1S60, 

Population, 

XV,  XVI. 

Olmslead, 

Seaboard 

Slave  State*, 

125-13.?. 
633-637. 

Washington, 
Story  of  the 
Ne^ro,  I, 
Ch.  X. 
Ik  Bow,  II, 


270      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Virginia  legislature  in  1831,  and  a  similar  proposition  was 
debated  in  the  Kentucky  assembly  as  ate  as  x849.    Vir- 
ginia prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves  from  abroad 
(1778)   and  Maryland  followed  her  example  m  1783-     iht 
"nty  years'  extension  of  the  slave  trade  conceded  by 
the  Federal  Constitution  was  condemned  by  prominent 
Southerners.     James  Madison  declared:    "  Twenty  years 
>wS  priiuce  all  the  mischief  that  can  be  apprehended  from 
The  Hberty  to  import  slaves.     So  long  a  term  will  be  more 
^shonorable  to  the  national  character  than  to  say  nothing 
about  it  in  the  Constitution."  . 

A  considerable  number  of  slaves  was  being^"^^'^^ ^  ^^'l^ 
by  the  voluntary  act  of  their  owners.     John  Randolph 
hid  signalized  his  detestation  of  slavery  by  freeing  hi. 
negroes  and  bequeathing  $8000  for  setthng  them  °njree 
soil   and  this  "  shocking  example  "  was  followed  by  other 
onsdentious   planters.    The   Friends   of   Sandy   Sprm.. 
Marv'land,  freed  their  slaves  early  m  the  mnetee'ith  ccn- 
iu^     One  wealthy  Virginian  emancipated  his  forty-one 
slaves  by  will  and  provided  for  their  transportation  to 
Cass  County,  Michigan,  and  for  the  purchase  of  land  fu 
the?r  use     The  number  of  manumissions  steadily  increased 
until  they  amounted  to  from  two  to  three  thousand  a  year 
and  it  is'probable  that  in  the  last  decade  before  the  C.u 
War  some  twenty  thousand  negroes  were  so  set  free.     1  ht 
number  of  slaves  escaping  to  the  North  was  by  compar.^on 
inconsiderable;  the  total  reported   or  1850  was  loii   a 
for  i860  803.     In  i860  the  free  colored  population  of  Uu 
United  States  reached  a  total  of  500,000,  of  whoni  250.000 
were  found  in  the  Southern  states  and  ".fo/t  the  na- 
tional capital.    The  y>re.cnce  of  this  large  body  of  frnd- 
men,  neither  citizens  nor  slaves,  and  having,  theclo  t. 
no  ix)litical  status,  caused  considerable  uneasiness  to  . 
ruling  class,  and  laws  regulating  their  conduct  passed  1^^ 
several  states  were  hardly  less  severe  than  the  slave  code 

'^'to  Southern  statesmen  the  insuperable  obstacle  t(,  (zon- 
eral   emancipation   was   the   difficulty   of   providing   lot 


li 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     271 


African  freedmen  in  the  American  social  and  industrial 
order.    Henry  Clay  hated  slavery  and  ardently  hoped  to 
"  eradicate  this  deepest  stain  upon  the  character  of  our 
country";    nevertheless,    he    assured    the    Colonization 
Society  of  Kentucky :    "If  the  question  were  submitted 
whether  there  should  be  either  immediate  or  gradual  eman- 
cipation of  all  the  slaves  in  the  United  States  without  their 
removal  or  colonization,  painful  as  it  is  to  express  the  opin- 
ion, I  have  no  doubt  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  emancipate 
them.     For  I  beUeve  that  the  aggregate  of  all  the  evils 
which  would  be  engendered  upon  society  upon  the  sup- 
position of  such  general  emancipation  and  of  the  liberated 
slaves    remaining    promiscuously   among   us,   would   be 
greater  than  all  the  evils  of  slavery,  great  as  they  un- 
questionably   are."    Clay    favored    the    colonization    of 
emancipated  slaves  in  the  land  from  which  they  had  been 
originally  abducted,  and  urged  upon  Congress  the  duty 
of  furnishing  the  means  of  transportation  for  at  least  52,000 
each  year  --  the  equivalent  of  the  annual  increase  in  the 
colored  population.    He  believed  that  if  this  opportunity 
to  dispose  of  the  freedmen  safely  were  given,  the  slave 
states  would  enact  laws  providing  for  gradual  emancipa- 
tion, and  thus  ultimately  rid  themselves  "  of  a  universally 
acknowledged  curse." 

The  American  Colonization  Society  was  organized  at 
Washington  in  18 15,  in  the  hope  of  founding  a  freedmen's 
colony  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  under  conditions  that 
should  secure  their  immediate  comfort  and  give  some 
assurance  of  eventual  self-support.  The  first  settlement 
at  Liberia  was  made  in  1822.  Seven  years  later,  according 
to  Clay,  there  were  fifteen  hundred  freedmen  in  residence, 
and  they  were  successfully  cultivating  cotton,  rice,  and 
sugar,  and  were  maintaining  a  fully  constituted  govern- 
ment together  with  schools,  churches,  and  a  public  library. 
In  1849,  when  Liberia  became  an  indei)endent  state,  there 
were  but  eighteen  thousand  blacks  of  American  origin 
m  Its jwpulaUon.  The  deportations  had  amounted  to  far 
less  than  the  anticipated  fifty-two  thousand  a  year,  and 


De  Bow,  II, 

262-264, 

267-269. 


Speeches  of 
Henry  Clay, 
Dec.  17, 
1829. 


Speeches  of 
Henry  Clay, 
Jan.  20, 
1827. 


Martineau, 
I.  34S-39S- 


De  Bow. 
H,  2J4,  267. 
309-jio, 
34». 


m 


n 


^ 


f 


it 


m 


J: 


!1 


i    i' 


Brown, 
Lower  South 
in  Am.  Hist., 
So-83. 
De  Bow, 

II,  2S3 ; 

III,  I3I- 


Holmes, 
Ch.  VIII. 


De  Bow, 
II,  J3S- 


272      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

it  became  evident  that  the  solution  offered  by  the  American 
Colonization  Society  was  utterly  inadequate. 

The    Proslavery   Movement.  —  Meantime,  as  the  in- 
terests of  the  cotton  planters  gained  ascendancy  in  the 
councils  of  the  South,  a  vigorous  agitation  in  favor  of  the 
"pecuUar  institution"  took  the  place  of  emancipation 
projects.    The  attempt  of  Northern  statesmen  to  extend 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  to  the  new  state  of  Missouri 
faUed  (1820),  and  only  that  part  of  Louisiana  Territory 
lying  north  of  36°  30'  was  reserved  to  free  labor.    Virginia 
and  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas  were  as  desirous  as  the 
Gulf  states  for  the  extension  of  the  slave  system,  for  they 
had  more  negroes  than  could  be  profitably  employed  on 
the  wornout  plantations,  and  the  planters  would  be  ruined 
without  an  enlarged  market  for  their  one  surplus  product. 
The  capital  invested  in  cotton  plantations  amounted,  in 
1840,  to  $327,000,000,  and  the  annual  product  represented 
a  gross  income  of  twenty,  and  a  net  income  of  eight  per 
cent.     Large-scale  production  seemed  to  necessitate  slave 
labor.    Governor  Hammond  of  South  Carolma  declared 
that  the  cotton  industry  would  be  ruined  by  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  negroes.    "The  first  and  most  obvious 
effect  would  be  to  put  an  end  to  the  cultivation  of  our 
great  southern  staple.    And  this  would  be  equally  the  re- 
sult, if  we  suppose  the  emancipated  negroes  to  be  in  no 
way  distinguished  from  the  free  laborers  of  other  countries, 
and  that  their  labor  would  be  equally  effective.    In  that 
case,  they  would  soon  cease  to  be  laborers  for  hire,  but  would 
scatter  themselves  over  our  unbounded  territory,  to  become 
independent  landowners  themselves.    The  cultivation  of 
the  soil  on  an  extensive  scale  can  only  be  carried  on  where 
there  are  slaves,  or  in  countries  superabounding  with  free 
labor.    No  such  operations  are  carried  on  in  any  porrion 
of  our  own  country  where  there  are  not  slaves.    Such  are 
carried  on  in  England,  where  there  is  an  overflowing  pop- 
ulation and  intense  competition  for  employment.    And 
our  institutions  seem  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  our  re- 
spective situations.    There,  a  much  greater  number  oi 


Civil  War:  Economic  Games  and  Results     273 

laborers  is  required  at  one  season  of  the  year  than  at  an- 
other, and  the  farmer  may  enlarge  or  diminish  the  quantity 
of  labor  he  employs,  as  circumstances  may  require.    Here, 
about  the  same  quantity  of  labor  is  required  at  every 
season,  and  the  planter  suffers  no  inconvenience  from  re- 
taining his  laborers  throughout  the  year.    Imagine  an  ex- 
tensive rice  or  cotton  plantation  cultivated  by  free  laborers, 
who  might  perhaps  strike  for  an  increase  in  wages  at  a 
season  when  the  neglect  of  a  few  days  would  insure  the 
destruction  of  the  whole  crop :  even  if  it  were  possible  to 
secure  laborers  at  all,  what  planter  would  venture  to  carry 
on  his  operations  under  such  circumstances  ?    I  need  hardly 
say,  that  these  staples  cannot  be  produced  to  any  extent 
where  the  proprietor  of  the  soil  cultivates  it  with  his  own 
hands.    He  can  do  little  more  than  produce  the  necessary 
food  for  himself  and  his  family." 

As  the  money  interest  in  slave  labor  grew  more  potent 
Southern  leaders  undertook  to  justify  the  labor  system  of 
the  South,  and  to  prove  that  slavery  was  no  more  de- 
gradmg  than  wage  labor.  "  What  is  the  essential  char- 
acter of  Slavery,  and  in  what  does  it  differ  from  the  crvi- 
tudeof  other  countries?  If  I  should  venture  on  a  definition, 
I  should  say  that  where  a  man  is  compelled  to  labor  at  the 
w-iU  of  another,  and  to  give  him  much  the  greater  portion 
of  the  product  of  his  labor,  there  Slavery  exists ;  and  it  is 
immatenal  by  what  sort  of  compulsion  the  will  of  the 
laborer  IS  subdued.  It  is  what  no  human  being  would 
do  without  some  sort  of  compulsion.  He  cannot  be  com- 
polled  to  abor  by  blows.  No,  but  what  difference  does 
It  make,  if  you  can  inflict  any  other  sort  of  torture  which 
will  be  equally  effectual  in  subduing  the  will?  if  you  can 
starve  him,  or  alarm  him  for  the  subsistence  of  himself 
or  lus  family?  And  is  it  not  under  this  compulsion  that 
ine  freeman  labors?" 
Against  such  arguments,  one  should  in  all  fairness  set 

ni  fHi  T^'""  ""^  ""  ""^^^^"^^  Northern  observer.  F.  L 
uimsted,  who  made  extended  horseback  journeys  through 
the  South  m  1853  and  1855,  became  convinced  that  the 


BasscU, 
Slavery  in 
North 
Carolina, 
391-425- 


!» 


i 


De  Bow, 
n,  223. 


Olmsted, 
The  Cotton 
Kingdom, 
II,  184-212, 

252-271. 


Olmsted, 
Seaboard 
Slave  States, 
go-gi, 
98-9Q,  los, 
185-186, 

686-715- 


Steiner, 
Slavery  in 
Connecticut, 

407  45  i- 


Hart, 

Slavery  and 
Abolition. 


li 


274      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

industrial  efficiency  of  free  labor  was  from  two  to  four  times 
that  of  slaves  who  lack  the  stimulus  of  acquisition.        1  his 
s  the  truth,  then  -  is  it  not?    The  slaves  are  generally 
sufficiently  well-fed  to  be  in  tolerable  working  condition ; 
but  not  as  well  as  our  free  laborers  generally  are :  slavery, 
in  practice,  affords  no  safety  against  occasional  stifering 
for  want  of  food  among  laborers,  or  even  against  their 
starvation,  any  more  than  the  competitive  system;  while 
it  withholds  all  encouragement  from  the  laborer  to  improve 
his  faculties  and  his  skill;  destroys  hb  ^^U-respe^^^  "^^^^ 
directs  and  debases  his  ambition,  and  withholds  all  the 
natural  motives  which  lead  men  to  endeavor  to  increase 
their  capacity  of  usefulness  to  their  country  and  the  world. 
To  all  this,  the  occasional  suffering  of  the  free  laborer  is 
favorable,  on  the  whole.     The  occasional  suffering  of  the 
slave  has  no  such  advantage.     To  deceit,  indolence,  malev- 
olence, and  thievery,  it  may  lead,  as  may  ^e  -ffenng 
of  the  laborer,  but  to  industry,  cultivation  of  skill, 
perseverance,  economy,  and  virtuous  habits   neither  the 
suffering,  nor  the  dread  of  it  as  a  possibility,  ever  can 
Ld  the  slave,  as  it  generally  does  the  free  laborer,  unle.., 
it  is  by  inducing  him  to  run  away."  •     ,-  „ 

Trend  of  Opinion  in  the  North.  -  The  emancipation 
movement  of  the  North,  in  its  later  stages  at  least,  gathered 
inspiration    from    the    democratic    theories    of  Jhoma. 
Jefferson.    The  gospel  of  liberty,  equality   and  f  atermtv 
imbibed  in  revolutionary  France  led  Jefferson  to  prrfix 
totht  Declaration  of  Independence  the  assertion  that     all 
men  are  created  equal,"  the  potent  shibboleth  of  everv 
humanitarian  movement  that  has  agitated  the  American 
people  since  his  day.     Earnest  of  his   aith  in  this  demo- 
cratic dogma  was  given  in  Jefferson's  plan  for  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Northwest  Territory  (submitted  to  th 
Congress  of  the  Confederation  in  March   1784),  m  which 
manhood  suffrage,  the  sale  to  actual  settlers  of  the  pub 
lands,  and  the  prohibition  of  slavery  were  guaranteed  in 
the  region  Virginia  was  about  to  cede  to  the  United  Stat  > 
Jefferson's  accession  to  the  presidency  was  hailed  as  th- 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     275 


triumph  of  the  people's  party.  The  removal  of  the 
original  limitations  on  the  suffrage  in  the  first  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  extension  of  the  ballot 
privilege  to  every  male  citizen  was  the  fruition  of  his 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty. 

The  Humanitarian  Movement  originated  with  the  visit 
to  the  United  States  in  1825  of  Robert  Owen,  the  English 
communist.    Owen  was  the  founder  of  a  model  factory 
town  at  New  Lanark,  Scotland,  and  the  chief  promoter  of 
the  factory  act  of  1819,  the  first  successful  attempt  to  limit 
child  labor  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Great  B  ritain.     The  vested 
interests  of  the  Old  Worid  opposed  vexatious  obstacles 
to  the  carrying  out  of  his  social  and  economic  ideals,  and 
he  determined  to  make  his  experiment  in  communism  on 
virgin  soil.     A  tract  of  thirty  thousand  acres  along  the 
Wabash  River  was  purchased  of  the  Rappists,  a  German 
religious  community,  and  hither  Owen  invited  the  "  in- 
dustrious and  well-disposed  of  all  nations  "  who  desired 
to  test  the  socializing  potency  of  human  brotherhood. 
Some  nine  hundred  people  gathered  at  New  Harmony, 
and  $200,000  out  of  Owen's  private  fortune  was  invested 
in  the  experiment ;   but  the  ideal  community  held  together 
only  three  years.     Owen  found  explanation  of  the  failure 
m  the  latent  selfishness  of  human  nature.     "  There  was  not 
disinterested  industry;   there  was  not  mutual  confidence ; 
there  was  not  practical  experience ;   there  was  not  unison 
of   action,  because  there  was  not  unanimity  of   counsel. 
These  were  the  points  of  difference  and  dissension,  the  rock 
upon  which  the  social  bark  struck  and  was  wrecked." 
Runng  this  and  subsequent  visits  to  the  United  States, 
this  apostle  of  a  new  social  order  lectured  to  great  audience^ 
m  hastern  cities,  and  addressed  a  distinguished  assembly 
at  the  national  capital.     He  counted  such  men  as  John 
yuincy  Adams  among  his  friends,  and  solicited  public 
infjorsemont  of  his  panacea  for  the  woes  of  society.     Un- 
discouraged  by  the  failure  at  New  Harmony,  his  disciples 
undertook  a  series  of  similar  experiments.     In  the  stirring 
years  from  1830  to  i860  eleven  Owenite  communities  were 


Robert  Dale 
Owen,  Auto- 
biography, 
Ch.  Ill, 
VIII,  IX. 


Sargant, 
Robt.  Owen, 
Ch.  XX- 

xxu. 


Noye3, 
Hist,  of  Am. 
Socialisms, 
Ch.  II-IV. 


\ 

V 

,  1     t 

1^ 

:  ': 

IM ' 


:'       i   ' 


ii  ! 


Ely,  Labor 
Movements 
in  America, 
Ch.  III. 
McNeill, 
The  Labor 
Movement, 
Ch.  IV. 
Mitchell, 
Organized 
Labor, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Commons 
and  Sumner, 
Labor  Move- 
ment, 1820- 
1860. 


Sotheran, 
Horace 
Greeley, 
106-107. 


276      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

planted,  flourished  for  brief  periods,  and  died.  Most  of 
the  settlers  came  from  New  England,  and,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  Nashoba,  an  experiment  in  emancipation, 
their  settlements  were  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon'f  line. 
Owen  failed  to  demonstrate  the  practicability  of  com- 
munism, but  his  influence  for  social  betterment  was  great. 
Faith  in  human  brotherhood  and  in  the  possibilities  of 
social  and  economic  reform  spread  like  a  reUgious  revival 
throughout  the  North.  Many  of  the  men  prominent 
in  the  humanitarian  movements  of  the  next  thirty  years 
were  originally  converts  to  Robert  Owen's  gospel. 

The  Organization  of  Labor  began  with  the  mtroduction 
of  machinery  and  the  massing  of  operatives  in  factories 
and  workshops.     The  natural  effect  was  the  consciousness 
of  common  interests  and  the  determination  to  promote 
the  betterment  of  working  conditions  by  concerted  demand. 
The  first  trade  unions  appeared  in  the  industrial  centers 
of  the  North  Atiantic  states;    New  York  witnessed  its 
first  strike  in  1802,  Boston  in  1825,  the  first  trade  union 
council  was  convened  in  New  York  in  1833.    With  im- 
proved facilities  for  communication  and  assembly,  these 
local   unions  were   converted  into   federal   associations. 
The  printers  were  so  organized  in  1852,  the  hat  finishers 
in  1854,  the  iron  workers  and  machinists  in  1858  and  1859. 
Bodies  of  mechanics  affiliated  along  trade  union  lines 
will  further  their  own  immediate  interests  with  small  regard 
for  the  well-being  of  unskilled  laborers,  but  with  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage,  workingmen  began  to  organize  to 
secure,  by  means  of  the  ballot,  laws  that  should  benefit 
not  their  trade  fellows  merely,  but  the  whole  body  of  wage- 
earners.    The  Workingmen's  party  held  its  first  general 
convention  at  Syracuse  in  1830.    In  the  following  year  the 
New  England  Association  of  Farmers,  Mechanics,  and 
Other  Workingmen  proposed  "  the  organization  of  the 
whole  laboring  population  of  this  United  Republic  "  and 
the  revision  of  "  our  social  and  political  system."    The 
founders  declared  their  "  fixed  determination  to  persevere 
till  our  wrongs  are  redressed,  and  to  imbue  the  minds  of 


W: 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     277 

our  offspring  with  a  spirit  of  abhorrence  for  the  usurpations 
of  aristocracy,  and  of  resistance  to  their  oppressions,  so 
invincible,  that  they  shall  dedicate  their  lives  to  a  com- 
pletion of  the  work  which  their  ancestors  commenced  in 
their  struggle  for  national  and  their  sires  have  continued 
in  their  contest  for  personal  independence."    In  1830  the 
Workingmen's  party  of  New  York  polled  less  than  three 
thousand  votes  in  the  state  elections,  but  in  New  York 
City,  where  the  organization  had  a  strong  constituency, 
it  succeeded  in  electing  three   or  four  members  of   the 
legislature.     In    1832    the   party  declared   for   Andrew 
Jackson  and  threw  all  its  weight  in  favor  of  the  Demo- 
cratic president.    In  1835,  as  "Locofocos,"  they  captured 
the  New  York  Democratic  convention  and  promulgated 
a  party  platform    based    on    the    Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence.   Martin  Van  Buren  owed  his  election  in  goad 
part  to  the  votes  of    the  workingmen  of   the   Eastern 
states,  and  he  rewarded  their  loyalty  (1840)  by  prescribing 
a  ten-hour  day  for   all   employees  of   the  national  gov- 
ernment.   The  crisis  of  1837  and  the  subsequent  indus- 
trial depression  checked,  for  the  time  being,  the  growth 
of  the  labor  movement. 

In  1842  a  second  wave  of  socialist  enthusiasm  passed 
over  New  England  and  the  North.  Albert  Brisbane,  the 
apostle  of  Fourier's  gospel  of  association,  found  a  hearing 
among  the  most  thoughtful  men  of  the  day,  such  as  Horace 
Greeley,  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  William 
Henry  Channing,  who  edited  the  Spirit  of  the  Age,  Wendell 
Phillips,  Parke  Godwin,  etc.  A  number  of  Fourierist  pha- 
lansteries, thirty  or  forty  in  all,  were  set  on  foot,  and  to 
these  came  men  and  women  of  all  classes  and  conditions, 
hoping  to  find  in  community  of  property  and  labor  the 
secret  of  social  regeneration.  These  associations,  without 
exception,  made  their  experiments  in  the  Northern  tier  of 
state?  —  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa.  The  practical  results  of  the 
P^^P^^anda  were  no  more  encouraging  than  accrued  from 
the  Owenite  movement ;  but  its  influence  was  even  greater 


Kept.  Mass. 
Bureau 
Statistics  of 
Labor,  1870, 
91-100. 


Commons, 

Horace 

Greeley. 

Sotheran, 
121-122, 

148-153, 
187. 

Noyes,  Hist, 
of  .\m. 
Socialisms, 
Ch.  II. 


278      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


i  I  ■:! 


li  ^' 


fMi' 


I;    i  ;i 


Ingle, 
Ch.  IX. 

Brown, 
Lower  South 
in  Am.  Hist., 

83-112. 

The  Spirit  of 
the  Age,  I, 
203-204. 


Julian, 
Pnlitir.al 
Recollec- 
tions, 

Ch.  II,  III, 
VI-VIII. 


and  more  lasting.  Failing  to  establish  ideal  communities, 
the  reformers  undertook  to  remedy  the  abuses  of  the  society 
in  which  they  were  forced  to  Uve.  The  labor  movement 
gathered  fresh  energy.  George  Henry  E^ans  and  Robert 
Dale  Owen  and  Frances  Wright,  all  three  of  EngUsh  birth 
and  Owenites,  addressed  great  audiences  in  .the  Hall  of 
Science,  New  York,  and  convinced  their  hearers  of  the 
necessity  of  agitating  for  legislative  reforms.  Evans's 
paper.  Young  America,  set  forth  among  the  objects  to  be 
attained  "the  abolition  of  chattel  slavery"  and  the  free 
distribution  of  the  public  lands. 

Slavery  and  the  Territories.  —  The  advocates  of  the 
rights  of  free  labor  strenuously  opposed  the  annexation  of 
Texas  and  the  resulting  war  with  Mexico.    The  Mexican 
cession  an  accomplished  fact,  they  strove  to  prevent  the 
admission  of  slavery  into  the  territories  both  north  and 
south  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line.    As  the  Demo- 
cratic party  fell  under  the  sway  of  Southern  political  lead- 
ers and  became  committed  to  the  policy  of  non-interference, 
the  labor  men  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the  Liberty 
party,  with  whose  fight  against  slavery  and  championship 
of  free  land  they  were  in  hearty  accord.    The  Free-Soil 
Democracy,  organized  at  Buffalo  in  1848,  combined  the 
more  moderate  wing  of  the  Liberty  party,  the  malcontent 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  with  the  elements  of  the  Working- 
men's  party.     The  platform  declared  the  prime  object  of 
this  revolt  to  be  to  maintain  "  the  rights  of  free  labor  against 
the  aggression  of  the  slave  power  and  to  secure  free  soil 
to  a  free  people."    The  Massachusetts  state  convention 
more  succinctly  expressed  the  point  of  view  of  the  wage- 
earners  :   "  Resolved,  That  labor  is  universally  dishonored 
and  its  interests  compromised  by  the  existence  of  slavery 
in  this  country,  and  that  the  first  step  for  its  elevation 
must  be  the  limitation  and  extinction  of  slavery."    Van 
Burcn,  the  nominee  of  the  Free-Soil  Democrats,  securcl 
291,000  votes,  of  which  120,000  were  polled  in  New  York, 
38,000  in  Massachusetts,  and  ,35i0oo  in  Ohio;  but  he  was 
defeated  by  Zachary   x^ylor,  a  slave    owner  who  had 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     279 


won  popular  favor  by  brilliant  service  in  the  Mexican 
War.  In  its  platform  of  1852  the  Free-Soil  Democ- 
racy declared  explicitly  that  slavery  must  be  excluded 
from  the  territories,  and  that  "  the  public  land  of  the 
United  otates  belongs  to  the  people  and  should  not  be 
sold  to  individuals  nor  granted  to  corporations,  but  should 
be  held  as  a  sacred  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  peo^ic  and 
should  be  granted  in  limited  quantities,  free  of  cost,  to 
landless  settlers."  The  156,000  votes  cast  for  Hale  and 
JuUan  in  1852  fell  far  short  of  Van  Buren's  total,  but  rep- 
resented a  body  of  men  thoroughly  convinced  on  these 
two  points. 

The  utterances  of  the  Republican  party  on  the  mooted  Julian, 
questions  of  slavery  and  the  public  lands  were  more  cautious,  ^}^^^  Repub- 
but  its  platform  served  as  a  rallying  ground  for  the  aboh-  ['ional^^' 
tionists,  the  free-soilers,  and  the  men  who  cared  most  of  Convention, 
all  for  the  preser\'ation  of  the  Union.     Fremont,  in  1856, 
secured  the  total  electoral  vote  of  New  England,  together 
with  that  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Iowa,  and  W  is- 
consin ;  and  Lincoln  in  i860  added  to  the  list  of  Repubhcan 
states  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Min- 
nesota, California,  and  Oregon. 

The  triumph  of  the  Republican  party  meant  the  exclu- 
sion of  slavery  from  the  territories  and  the  ultimate  ruin 
of  the  "peculiar  institution."  The  proslavery  men  of 
the  Southern  states  forced  the  issue.  Six  weeks  after 
Lincoln's  election  South  Carolina  adopted  the  Ordinance 
of  Secession,  and  her  example  was  immediately  followed 
by  the  six  Gulf  states.  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri  were  the  only  slaveholding  states  that  did 
not  secede  from  the  Union. 

The  Cost  of  the  War 

Each  party  to  the  controversy  was  fighting  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  poHtical  principle  on  which  depended 
the  success  of  its  peculiar  economic  and  social  order.  The 
five  years'  conflict  was  waged  with  obstinate  endurance  and 


j| 


■wm^y. 


» 


^  1 

li 

1           M 

' 

1  -        1 

^ 

1  '     3 

iii  ,,.    B 

ii 

Hlii^ 

a 

Goodloe, 
Resources 
and  Indus- 
trial Condi- 
tions of 
Southern 
SUtea,  no. 

Kettell, 
Southern 
Wealth  and 
Northern 
Profits. 


Schwab, 
Confederate 
States  of 
America, 
Ch.  XI,  XII 


Schwab, 
Ch.  Ill,  IV. 


280      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

recUess  expenditure  of  men  and  money  ^X  North  and 
South  alike,  and  the  issue  of  the  war  was  determmed  by 
?he  final  exhaustion  of  the  Confederacy.    The  resources 
of  the  cotton  kingdom  were  far  less  than  those  of  the 
IrLn  spates.    The  population  of  the  South  was  twelve 
mU  on  souls,  of  whom  four  mUUons  were  slaves     The 
NorSTorpos;!  a  population  of  nineteen  miUions,  all  free 
Thltaxable  property  of  the  South  was,  by  the  census  of 
Tst  e^Snlat'^  a't  fiv'e  billion  dollars,  of  -1"^^^- ^^jons 
repriented  slaves  and  one  biUion  and  a  half  real  estate 
dTvoted,  in  the  main,  to  the  gro>^.ng  of  cotton.    Th^ 
property  of  the  Northern  states  approximated  eleven  bil- 
Uon  doUars,  and  consisted,  in  good  part,      nianufactunng. 
mTning  and  commercial  plants  whose  product  ---- 
readily  convertible  into  the  sinews  of  war.    When  Le    .ur 
rendered  at  Appomattox,  his   men  were   found   utterly 
destitute  of  supplies  and  weak  from  lack  of  food. 

Confederate  Finances.  -  It  was  expected  that  the  ex 
penses  of  the  Confederate  government  would  be  met  by 
STms  revenue,  but  the  effectual  bl-kade  mam  -^^^^^^ 
by  the  Federal  navy  stopped  foreign  trade,  and  the  returns 
le   disappointing.    The   individua    ^tat-   -ere   then 
asked  to  lew  a  direct  property  tax  of  one  half  of  one  ptr 
^nfandUurn  over  the  proceeds  to  the  general  treasury. 
No  more  than  $r8,ooo,ooo  resulted  from  th-  r^uxsUjon 
and  payments  were  usually  made,  not  in  cash,  but  m  sUtt 
bonds.    It  speedily  became  evident  that  the  augmentmR 
military  expenses  must  be  met  by  loans.    In  the  first 
vear  of  the  war  the  Confederate  government  issued  bonds 
to  the  amount  of  $15,000,000  at  8  per  cent,  mterest  and 
principal  l>eing  secured  by  an  export  tax  on  cotton  of  one 
eShth  of  a  cent  a  pound.    This  issue  was  taken  up  by 
Southern  banker,  notably  those  of    New  Orleans  a.K 
Charleston,  and  brought  all  the  available  specie  in  the 
Confederacv  into  the  government  treasury.    The  moncv 
was  immediately  sent  abroad  for  miliiaiy  supplies.    A  b..nu 
issue  of  $150,000,000.  ordered  in  the  following  year,  ^^as 
made  payable  in  produce.    By  this  loan  the  government 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     281 


Jaiot  


1  I  >  ki  U 


<}UIO         '•  " 

'  irtM  wxth  •*¥*>■  »1IU  In^nMPunrt  in  «../i</  nrttwM, 


UUTKIBUIIUN   ur  l^OPULAItUN,  IdOu 


^■■m 

Ai  i 


111"  ■ 


'llf 


ff 


Schwab, 
Ch.  V,  VII. 
VIII. 


Is 
H 


282      Industrial  History  of  tlu  United  States 

■  ,„  nn,«Bsion  of  lanre  stores  of  cotton,  tobacco, 
'  W  rice'^^d  molLes,  commodities  that  were 
X  ^r-Uet   'c^ether  .i*  S^»o^  pa^ 

TotJoTand  Tct  cotton  ,as  s^i^  ^^STil 

-Sc^rTt^r^jS^^tjSn 

fflSi^,r:Se«r:oT;rt!re'Uontot.e 

foreign  creditors  faUed  p^^ederate  financiers  that 

and  bearing  interest  at  3.65  Pf^  3'    „.      ^^e  ^ate  was 

irestlSioa  be  redee.^„t:etd:r^t  tsat 
ratification  of  a  treaty  of  peace    ^^  order^ 

time.  l-l^^P^P^'^^T'^^'.^'Te^'^ri^^^^^  declaring 
but  the  Confederate  Congress  refrained    rom 

it  legal  tender  ^"  P^^!"^  ^^^^yt^^^^^  x86.. 
of  X86X  amounu^^o  f  3°'^;^^;  J^^^, .,  the  output 
$450,000,000  had  been  lorcea  ^^^^^  .^  ^^^j^ 

of  1863  was  ^^'J^'*^'?^//;^     Tre,umof  the  issues  of 
of  the  last  two  years  of  the  war.     ine  -u 
Confederate  currency  Woximated  one  bi^^^^^^^^        ^_^ 
appalUng  total  were  ad  e^^m^^^^^^^  1,,  ana 

recorded  issues  of  the  ^ta^^  K°^  j^^^^.ed  inevitably, 

private  business  firms^  eu^encTwas  inflated,  in  part  bc- 
_- in  part  because  the  ^"^^^^^  .^ ^i^i^^te  redemption, 
cause  men  lost  confidence  m  its  "'""?*'         ^oii^rs  in 

In  January,  1863,  a  gold  ^-''^X:\Tl\^M  f- 
Confederate  paper,  twelve  months  laU  .  RoW         ^^^  .^ 

twenty-one  and  in  January.  85^- 1-''^^  ^.^j^^^^^.  the 
the  del  ^  currency,  ^f^^''^/^  'f"  ...i^n  The  noUs 
Confederate  money  passed  out  of  circulation. 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     283 


were  lost  or  destroyed  or  found  their  way  into  historical 
museums. 

In  her  extremity  the  South  resorted  to  various  other 
financial  expedients  that  had  proven  futile  during  the 
Revolutionary  War.  Men  who  refused  to  receive  Con- 
federate money  were  denounced  as  traitors  and  condemned 
by  the  state  legislatures  to  heavy  penalties;  price  con- 
ventions were  held  with  a  view  to  fixing  fair  rates  of  ex- 
change; stay  laws  were  passed  suspending  the  collection 
of  debts,  notably  in  case  of  Confederate  soldiers,  till  the 
close  of  the  war;  the  sequestration  of  obligations  owing 
to  the  Federal  government  and  to  Northern  creditors 
was  ordered,  and  confiscation  of  Union  stores  and  the 
property  of  the  United  States  to  military  uses  was  au- 
thorized by  the  Confederate  Congress. 

Federal  Finances.  —  When  the  Charleston  batteries 
fired  on  Fort  Sumter,  the  Federal  government  was  entirely 
unprepared  for  war.  The  surplus  revenues  of  1857  were 
exhausted,  and  the  treasury  showed  a  deficit  of  $56,000,000. 
Customs  receipts  under  the  Democratic  tariff  proving  in- 
adequate to  ordinary  expendituf,  the  rates  had  been  some- 
what increased  by  the  Morrill  Act  of  1861,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  recommendations  of  Secretary  Chase,  a 
further  increase,  notably  in  the  revenue  duties  on  salt, 
coffee,  and  tea,  was  legislated  in  the  first  year  of  the  war. 
The  rates  were  raised  from  jcar  to  year,  but  the  customs 
receipts  did  not  wax  in  proportion.  Commerce  was 
seriously  interrupted  by  the  depredations  of  Confederate 
cruisers,  and  there  was  a  marked  decline  in  imports. 


Schwab, 
Ch.  VI,  IX. 


Sherman, 
Recollec- 
tions, I,  Ch. 

XI,  XII. 
Wells, 
Recent 
Financial, 
etd.,    Experi- 
ences of  the 
U.S. 
Dewey,  Ch. 

XII,  XIII. 
Bolles.  Ill, 
Bk.  I, 
Ch.  I-III. 


Ybab 


1860-1861 

I.Hdi    1862 
iSn-   i,Sf)3 

iS'>4-i865 


Customs  RcrRiPTS  ! 


$30,000,000 

40,000,000 

60.000.000 

102,000,000 

85,000,000 


luPOKTS 


$280,000,000 
I  8q  ,000,000 
243,000,000 
316,000,000 

i.?(J,OOO,000 


^  /«' 


Hi 

!  B 

J 

I    iii 


Bolles.  III. 
Bk.  I,  Ch. 
iV,  V,  VIII 

Dewey, 
354-358- 


284      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Receipts  from  direct  taxes  were  also  disappointing,  and 
the  government  had  resort  to  other  devices.    Sumptuary 
taxes  were  laid  on  luxuries,  such  as  carriages,  yachts, 
bilUard  tables,  and  plate ;  Ucenses  were  exacted  of  many 
occupations ;  manufacturing  and  transportation  compames 
were  taxed  in  proportion  to  earnings;   stamps  were  re- 
quired on  contracts,  legal  documents,  etc.;    and  excise 
duties  were  collected  from  the  producers  of  spints,  ale, 
beer  and  tobacco.     With  a  view  to  adjusting  the  burden 
to  wealth,  Congress,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  levied 
an  income  tax.    In  1861  three  per  cent  was  laid  on  all  in- 
comes of  more  than  $800  a  year,  and  in  1865  this  tax  was 
raised  to  five  per  cent  on  incomes  ranging  from  $600  to 
$5000,  while  ten  per  cent  was  required  from  ampler  rev- 
enues.   Since  the  RepubUcan  party  was  enthusiastically 
supported  by  the  bulk  of  business  men,  there  was  Uttle 
protest  against  these  "  war  measures."    Even  the  income 
tax  was  paid  with  no  grumbling,  and  with  but  litUe  attempt 
at  evasion.    The  Federal  revenues  of  1865-1866  reached 
the  unprecedented   sum   of  $559,000,000;   but  military 
expenses  augmented  even  more  rapidly  than  income,  and 
the  government  was  obliged  to  borrow  the  money  with 
which  to  carry  on  the  war. 

Expenditure  for  Army  and  Navy      

;^rr~^        .  .  .  ."7 $35,389,000 

86 431,813,000 

186S i.i53.307,°o:' 

In  February,  1862,  Congress  authorized  a  loan  of 
$500,000,000  in  long-term  bonds  at  six  per  cent,  and  at  the 
same  time  authorized  the  issue  of  $150,000,000  in  x\o\\-\\\- 
terert-bearine  notes.  The  bonds  sold  but  i^lowly,  for  tlie 
rate  of  interest  in  view  of  the  risk  of  ultimate  repudiaU.Mi 
was  not  high.  Only  $2.^750.000  was  secured  from  bond 
sales  in  the  course  of  the  first  year,  and  the  government 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     285 


was  forced  to  have  recourse  to  bills  of  credit.  An  issue  of 
$150,000,000  was  made  in  July,  1862,  and  equal  amounts 
were  ordered  in  January  and  March  of  1863.  The  act  of 
February,  1862,  had  given  these  "greenbacks"  legal  tender 
value,  and  the  constitutionality  of  this  provision  was  later 
sustained  by  the  Supreme  Court.  The  notes  neverthe- 
less declined  in  purchasing  power.  The  amount  of  de- 
preciation varied  with  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  war,  but 
the  nadir  point  was  reached  in  July  and  August  of  1864, 
when  this  paper  dollar  was  worth  but  one  third  its  face  in 
gold.  On  June  30,  1864,  further  issues  were  forbidden, 
but  the  mischief  was  already  done.  The  depreciated  cur- 
rency had  driven  gold  from  circulation  everywhere  except 
on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  prices  of  all  commodities  were 
doubled  and  trebled.  It  is  estimated  that  the  war  debt 
v.as  at  least  one  fifth  greater  than  if  government  purchases 
had  been  made  in  specie. 


Mitchell, 
Hist,  of  the 
Greenbacks, 
Pt.  I. 

Dewey, 

360-367. 


Oberholtzer, 
Jay  Cooke 
and  the 
Financing  of 
the  Civil 
War. 

Mitchell. 
Hist,  of  the 
Greenbacks, 
40s,  419- 


Ch.  XI ; 
Bk.  n, 
Ch.  IV. 


Industrial  Transfonnation 

The   National    Banking    System.  —  By   legislation    of  Dewey, 
February,  1863,  amended  in  June,  1864,  Congress  provided  ^'7 j^^^- 
for  a  national  bank  currency  guaranteed  by  government 
bonds.    Every  banking  association  complying  with  the 
terms  of  the  law  was  to  be  furnished  by  the  comptroller  Boties, 
of  the  currency  with  engraved  notes  amounting  to  90  per  JIJ-  ^|j  '• 
cent  of  the  market  value  though  never  more  than  the  par 
value  of  the  securities  subscribed.    A  steady  demand  for 
United  States  bonds  was  thus  developed.    The  sales  of 
1S63  amounted  to  $400,000,000,  and  $600,000,000  addi- 
tional was  sold  without  difficulty  during  the  next  two 
years.     Sixteen  hundred  national  banks  were  organized, 
and  $175,000,000  of  redeemable  currency  was  issued  before 
the  close  of  the  war.    The  political  advantages  of  this 
policy  were  no  less  than  in  Hamilton's  day.     Bank  offi- 
cial* and  stockholder*  were  naturally  eager  to  maintain 
the  solvency  of  the  Federal  treasury,  and  all  the  business 
interests  of  the  North  were  firmlv  attached  to  the  Union. 


I- 


til 

■if 


m 


n 


ti 


Dewey, 

360-378. 

BoUes,  m, 
Bk.  II, 
Ch.  I,  U. 


Dewey, 

378-382. 


Report  of 
the  Sec.  of 
the  Treas., 

1897. 
CXXXI. 


Noyes, 
Forty  Years 
of  American 
Finance, 
Ch.  I,  III. 


286      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  fiscal  advantages  of  the  national  banking  system  were 
equally  important  and  enduring.  For  the  uncertainties 
of  seven  thousand  varieties  of  state  bank  notes  issued  by 
fifteen  hundred  private  banks  that  were  chartered  by 
twenty-nine  state  legislatures  of  varying  financial  pro- 
clivities, was  substituted  a  uniform  currency  whose  redemp- 
tion was  guaranteed  by  bonds  of  the  United  States.  The 
state  banks  could  make  but  a  losing  fight  against  such  odds, 
but  the  retirement  of  their  issues  was  forced  by  a  ten  per 
cent  tax  (March,  1865). 

Redemption   of  the   Greenbacks.  —  The  accumulated 
war  debt  of  the  Federal  government,  represented  in  bonds, 
treasury  notes,  certificates  of  indebtedness,  and  greenbacks, 
amounted  (September,  1865)  to  $2,546,000,000,  and  of  this 
enormous  sum  no  part  was  repudiated.    The  tax-paying 
capacity  of  the  country  was  ample  to  care  for  both  interest 
and  principal.    An  act  of  April,  1 866,  provided  for  the  fund- 
ing of  the  bond  issues  and  for  the  redemption  of  the  govern- 
ment notes.    Greenbacks  to  the  amount  of  $10,000,000 
were  to  be  called  in  and  exchanged  for  specie  within  the 
first  six  months,  and  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  was  au- 
thorized thereafter  to  redeem  not  more  than  $4,t)oo,ooo 
per  month.    Only  $44,000,000  was  cancelled  in  accord- 
ance with  this  plan,  but  the  contraction  in  the  volume  of 
the  currency  was  attended  by  a  shrinkage  in  prices  that 
proved  disturbing  to  business  interests  developed  under 
inflated  conditions.    The  redemption  of  this  part  of  the 
government  debt  was  opposed,  moreover,  by  the  advocates 
of  cheap  and  abundant  money  and  by  the  enemies  of  the 
national  banks.    Congress  yielded  to  popular  pressure; 
in  February,  1868,  the  cancelling  of  the  greenbacks  was 
suspended,  and  the  outstanding  notes  were  allowed  to  form 
a  permanent  element  in  our  circulating  medium.    The 
resumption  of  specie  payments  by   the   United  States 
treasury  in  1879  brought  these  legal  tender  notes  to  a  parity 
with  gold. 

Revival  of  Protective  Tariffs.  —  The  increase  of  import 
duties  was  necessitated  by  the  heavy  taxes  imposed  on 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  ami  Results     287 


domestic  industries,  a  tax  amounting  to  eight  and  fifteen 
and,  in  some  cases,  to  twenty  per  cent.  Our  factories,  dis- 
tilleries, and  iron  works,  burdened  by  such  requisitions, 
could  not  continue  to  produce  in  competition  with  untaxed 
imports,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  excise  paid  on  textiles, 
on  iron  and  steel,  petroleum,  sugar,  salt,  paper,  leather,  etc., 
must  be  offset  by  corresponding  import  duties.  Within 
a  fortnight  of  the  passing  of  the  internal  revenue  act  of 
1862,  Congress  passed  a  tariff  law  raising  the  impost  on 
salt  from  12  cents  to  18  cents  per  hundredweight,  on 
glass  and  iron  manufactures  from  30  to  35  per  cent, 
on  cottons  from  25  to  30  per  cent,  on  silks  from  30  to  40 
per  cent,  on  woolens  from  25  to  30  per  cent  with  an  added 
specific  duty  of  18  cents  per  pound.  The  average  rate 
for  the  tariff  schedule  of  1862  was  37.2  per  cent. 

In  1864  a  second  internal  revenue  act  raised  the  excise 
and  income  taxes  and  greatly  increased  the  list  of  in- 
dustries ?  ibject  to  the  levy.    A  tariff  act  immediately 
followed,  by  which  the  average  rate  on  -mports  was  raised 
to  47  per  cent.    The  duty  on  glass  manufactures  mounted 
from  35  to  40  per  cent,  10  per  cent  was  added  to  the  im- 
port tax  on  silks,  the  sjjecific  duty  on  woolens  was  raised 
to  24  cents  per  pound  and  the  ad  valorem  rate  to  40 
per  cent,  while  the  duties  on  raw  wool  imposed  by  the 
Morrill  Tariff  were  doubled.     So  urgent  was  the  need  of 
revenue,  and  so  ready  were  loyal  Republicans  to  strengthen 
the  army  and  navy,  that  little  attention  was  given  to  the 
industrial  bearing  of  this  extraordinary  tariff  schedule. 
The  bill  was  accepted  as  it  came  from  the  Committee  on 
VVays  and  Means  without  amendment.    Only  three  days' 
discussion  was  allowed  it  in  the  House,  and  but  two  days' 
m  the  Senate.     Undoubtedly  the  representatives  of  certain 
business  interests  influenced  the  details  of  the  bill,  asking 
and  securing  better  rates  than  were  necessary  to  offset 
their  excise  tax,  and  the  result  was  a  degree  of  protection 
beyond  that  accorded  by   any  previous   tariff.     Import 
duties  as  high  or  higher  had  been  imposed  in  1812,  but  they 
were  laid  to  meet  the  financial  emergency  and  were  reduced 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
iSS-193- 

Rabbeno, 
200-258. 

Belles,  in, 
Bk.  II. 
Ch.  VII. 

Cong.  Globe, 
1861-1862, 
1 196,  2979. 

Stanwood, 
II,  136-138. 


288      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


iH 


'^i 


j!    ? 


U.  i 


Dewey, 
3gi-40i. 


Stanwood, 
II,  Ch.  XIV 


the  year  Mowing  the  declaration  of  peace.    Not  so  the 
tariff  arising  out  of  the  CivU  War.    The  internal  taxes 
levied  by  the  Federal  Concress  (with  the  exception  of  the 
excise  on  liquors,  tobacco,  matches,  patent  medicines,  etc.) 
were  repealed  before  1872  ;  but  no  corresponding  reduction 
of  import  duties  was  initiated  by  the  party  m  power. 
The  industries  that  had  prospered  within  the  tariff  barrier 
protested  against  opening  the  gates  to  foreign  products, 
and  they  were  too  influential  to  be  gainsaid.    Among  the 
people  at  large  a  protective  tariff  was  closely  associated 
with  the  vindication  of  Federal  authority  and  tiie  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves,  and  was  regarded  as  essenUal  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  Union.  _ 

As  it  became  evident  that  the  import  tax  imposed  a 
heavy  burden  on  consumers,  sundry  attempts  were  made 
to  revise  the  schedule,  but  these  efforts  secured  only 
Uie  reduction  or  repeal  of  nonprotective  duties.    Finally, 
when  a  surplus  revenue  of  $100,000,000  had  accumulated 
from  customs  receipts.  Congress  was  forced  to  take  the 
question  of  revision  under  serious  consideration     The  act 
of  1872  repealed  the  duties  on  tea  and  coffee,  halved  the 
tax  on  salt,  and  provided  that  but  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
existing  duties  should  be  imposed  on  other  imports     But 
the  financial  panic  of  1873  alarmed  the  fnends  of  the  pro- 
tected interests,  the  horizontal  reduction  of  ten  per  cent 
was  repealed,  and  tiie  previous  rates  were  restored  m  the 

tariff  act  of  1875.  ,  ,  j      tu 

Material  Prosperity.  —  The  war  demands,  coupled  with 
the  protective  tariff,  induced  an  extraordinary  activity 
in  every  department  of  business  enterprise.  Umversal 
buoyancy  and  unbounded  confidence  in  the  future  ren- 
dered it  easy  to  borrow  money  at  home  and  abroad. 
European  capitalists  invested  readily  in  Umted  States 
securities,  railroad  bonds,  and  mining  stock,  and  the  re- 
sources of  the  country  were  exploited  as  never  before. 
The  farm  acreage  was' doubled  and  the  farmers  began  10 
export  wheat  and  corn  and  cattle  to  Europe,  where  a  series 
of  7rop  failures  insured  them  extraordinary  prices.     1  \^^ 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results    289 


English  manufactures  offered  an  unlimited  market  for 
American  cotton  and  our  exports  developed  to  phenomenal 
proportions.  The  balance  of  trade,  which  had  been  against 
us  since  1850,  was  reversed  in  our  favor  in  1875.  The 
annual  output  of  pig  iron  was  doubled,  that  of  coal  quin- 
tupled, while  the  production  of  steel  increased  a  hundred- 
fold in  the  decade  following  on  the  war.  The  iron  ranges 
of  the  Lake  Superior  region  were  opened  up  and  began 
shipping  ore  in  vast  quantities  to  the  works  at  Pittsburg, 
Buffalo,  Cleveland,  and  Chicago.  The  Marquette,  Me- 
nominee, and  Gogebic  ranges  were  within  easy  reach  of  the 
ports,  whence  direct  transportation  by  freight  steamer  was 
provided.  Improvements  in  methods  of  mining  and  smelt- 
ing soon  reduced  the  cost  of  producmg  iron  and  steel  to  the 
English  average. 

Meantime,  the  copper  deposits  of  the  Keweenaw  Penin- 
sula were  contributing  their  share  to  the  gains  of  this  phe- 
nomenal period.  Mining  operations  had  begun  in  1844. 
but  the  output  was  inconsiderable  till  after  the  war.  In 
1875  the  copper  mines  of  northern  Michigan  produced 
sixteen  thousand  tons,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  total  yield  of 
the  United  States.  Since  copper  was  then  selling  at  $400 
per  ton,  this  was  an  investment  even  more  attractive  than 
that  offered  by  the  iron  ranges.  Entrepreneurs  and  work- 
men swarmed  into  the  new  El  Dorado,  and  the  wastes  of 
the  Upper  Peninsula  were  converted  into  income-bearing 
properties. 

The  yield  of  gold  from  California  had  fallen  off,  but 
other  sources  of  supply  were  found.  The  Comstock  Lode, 
bearing  veins  of  gold  and  silver  in  fortunate  conjunction, 
was  discovered  in  1859.  Here,  in  the  heart  of  the  Great 
Basin,  in  precisely  the  most  barren  region  of  the  Cordilleran 
Range,  a  fountain  of  wealth  was  opened  up.  In  i860  silver 
was  produced  to  the  value  of  $550,000,  and  gold  to  the 
value  of  $200,000:  prospectors  and  speculators  flocked 
t^  the  district,  and  mushroom  towns  sprang  into  being. 
The  ixipulation  of  Nevada  grew  from  6857  in  i860  to 
42,41)1  in  1870,  and  62,266  in  1880.    The  cUmax  of  pro- 


Fite,  Social 
and  Indus- 
trial Condi- 
tions during 
the  Civil 
War,  Ch. 
II,  IV. 


Special  Rept 
U.  S.  Census 
on  Mines 
and  Quarries^ 
1902, 

395-425- 


Rept.  on 
Mines  and 
Quarries, 
482-486. 


Rept.  on 
Mines  and 
Quarries, 
563.  571-577. 

Shinn,  Story 
of  the  Mine, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


I 


•< 


r  5?l 


290      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

duction  was  reached  in  1877,  when  the  Comstock  Lode 
yielded  gold  and  silver  to  the  value  of  $36,000,000.  1  here- 
after tb3  output  declined,  and  Nevada  yielded  first  place 
to  Colorado.  The  production  of  the  precious  rnetals 
began  to  exceed  domestic  needs,  and  the  surplus  was  ex- 
ported. In  1873  we  sent  $40,000,000  worth  of  silver  to 
foreign  markets,  and  in  1875  $67,000,000  worth  of  gold 

The  development  of  manufactures  was  no  less  phe- 
nomenal than  that  of  mines.  New  inventions  and  im- 
proved machinery  stimulated  business  enterprise  in  eveiy 
Une  of  production.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  estab- 
lishments, output,  employees,  and  wages  during  the  war 
decade  exceeded  that  of  the  decades  before  and  after. 

Development  of  Manufactures 


Decade 


Establishments  i     Employees 


1850-1860 
1860-1870 
1870-1880 


Increase 
I4-2'c 
79.6 

•7 


Increase 
37.0% 
06.6 

330 


Wages  Paid 

Increase 
60.0% 
104.7 
22.2 


Output 


85.5% 
124.4 
26.9 


rirJtf' 


ti 


•   il: 


TarbelLHist.  Notable  among  the  material  achievements  of  the  war 
of  the  Stand-  period  was  the  utilization  of  a  new  and  valuable  raw 
ConSny  I  material,  petroleum.  The  farmers  of  northwestern  Penn- 
Ch.  I,  II.'  '  sylvania  had  long  known  and  used  in  rude  fashion  the 
"  rock  oil  "  that  floated  to  the  surface  of  streams  and 
ponds.  It  was  at  first  bottled  for  medicinal  purposes,  and 
Seneca  Oil,  Keer's  Oil,  etc.,  were  sold  as  liniment  all  over 
the  United  States.  Finally  the  inflammable  character 
of  the  fluid  attracted  the  attention  of  scientists,  and 
analysis  proved  that  petroleum  possessed  constituents 
of  high  market  value.  Distillation  developed  illuminating 
oil,  lubricating  oil,  naphtha,  gasoline,  benzine,  paraffin, 
etc.  A  company  was  organized  in  Boston  to  produce  and 
refine  petroleum  on  a  large  scale,  and  their  agent,  E.  T.. 


Bishop,  II, 
501-soa. 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     291 


Drake,  sunk  an  artesian  well  at  Titusville  in  the  summer 
of  1859,  from  which  he  pumped  twenty-five  barrels  of  oil 
on  the  first  day.    Since  crude  petroleum  was  then  worth 
$20  a  barrel,  his  success  converted  this  remote  and  barren 
region  into  a  scene  of  wild  speculation.    The  farmers 
began  to  drill  for  oil,  and  many  a  man  discovered  a  fountain 
of  wealth  beneath  his  rugged  fields.    Prospectors  flocked 
to  the  region  and  bought  claims  at  random,  and  soon  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Allegheny  River  and  its  tributaries, 
French  and  Oil  Creeks,  was  bristling  with  pumps  and  der- 
ricks.   The  total  output  of  1859  was  two  thousand  barrels. 
Many  of  the  wells  required  no  pumping,  but  gushed  oil 
night  and  day,  while  a  yield  of  two,  three,  and  four  thousand 
barrels  a  day  was  not  extraordinary.    The  difficulty  was 
to  dispose  of  the  product.    At  first  the  crude  oil  was 
carted  in  barrels  to  the  river,  loaded  on  scows,  and  floated 
downstream  to  Pittsburg;    but  a  branch  railroad  from 
Erie  was  built  to  Titusville  in  1863,  and  to  Oil  City  by 
1865.    Then  pipes  were  laid  from  the  wells  to  the  railway, 
and  iron  tanks  were  constructed  at  centers  of  deposit  for 
storing  the  oil.    Forty  million  barrels  of  crude  oil  were 
brought  to  the  surface  in  the  first  twelve  years,  refined, 
and  sold  in  the  domesUc  and  foreign  market.    The  new 
illuminant  was  sent   to   Egypt,  China,  East  India,  and 
Africa,  and  by  1872  reached  fourth  rank  in  the  exports 
of  the  United  States.  Meantime,  twenty  refineries  had  been 
set  up  in  the  oil  region,  but  these  enterprises  were  ham- 
pered by  the  difficulty  of  getting  distilling  apparatus  and  the 
necessary  chemicals  over  rough  mountain  roads.    It  was 
cheaper  to  transport  the  crude  oil  to  Pittsburg,  Cleveland, 
or  Erie.    The  refining  business  was  even  undertaken  at 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  and  foreign 
consignees  began  to  ask  for  crude  oil  that  they  might  secure 
the  profits  of  manufacture.    By  1869  Cleveland  took  the  u.  s.  Census, 
lead  in  the  refining  of  oil,  distancing  in  capacity  and  value   'y".  X, 
oi  output  Pittsburg,  New  York,  Boston,  and  the  oil  region  ^"'"^'' 
Itself.    The  largest  and  most  enterprising  of  the  Cleveland 
rehneries,  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  succeeded  in  buying 


W 


•1.  i  i 


V 


H 


■'i' 


i 

'  1 


*!  ■    3 


r  ir- 


1^ 


P'ill 


U^ 


Marvin, 
Ch.  XIV 
Bates, 
Ch.  IX. 


9&-130. 


292      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

up  all  local  competitors,  and  in  securing  from  the  railroads 
preferential  freight  rates  that  gave  its  product  an  advan- 
tage in  Eastern  and  Western  markets.  Wholesale  pro- 
duction gave  opportunity  to  convert  the  wastes  of  the 
refinery  into  by-products  far  more  valuable  than  the  maui 

output.  .       ,      J. 

The  wealth  of  the  country  as  a  whole,  despite  the  disr  ^ 
ters  that  hr.d  fallen  on  the  South,  rose  from  $i6,ooo,oocx  oc 
in  i860  to  $39,000,000,000  in  1870  and  $43,000,0.0-  c  00 
in  1880     During  this  same  twenty-year  period,  tht  i-'> 
lation  of  the  United  States  grew  from  thirty  miUi.    - 
fifty  millions,  an  extraordinary  increase  but  yet  Icl 
than  that  of  wealth. 

Per  Capita  ^'^ealth 


'«  1- 


Year 


i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 


U.S. 

Ho.  Atl. 

No.  CEhn  1 

So.  Atl. 
$537 

So.  Cent.! 

$su 

$528 

$436 

$598 

7»o 

1:43 

735 

384 

334 

850 

1207 

932 

495 

43,5 

1039 

..32 

1129 

579 

569 

Western 


S434 

843 

1291 

2250 


The  increase  in  per  capita  wealth  ot  the  Northern  states 
is  the  more  remarkable  because  of  the  accessions  to  popu- 
lation five  and  a  half  millions  were  newly  arrived  immi- 
grants. The  Irish,  German,  and  Scandinavian  peasants, 
who  thronged  into  the  North  Atlantic  ports,  made  a  wel- 
come addition  to  the  labor  force,  but  contributed  little 
capital  to  the  communities  in  which  they  settled. 

DecUne  of  our  MercantUe  Marine.  —  In  striking  con- 
trast to  the  development  i '  mining  and  manufactures 
„.  ,x  shows  the  decay  of  the  shipping  interest.     During  the  civil 

y.  ccr^us,  conflict  United  States  vessels  were  fairly  driven  from  the 
,880,  VIII.      sea  bv  the  mischances  of  war.     The  Conlederate  govern- 
ment'had  no  navy  and  abandoned  all  hope  of  breaking 
the  blockade  of  Southern  ports,  but  half  a  dozen  raen-of- 


■■¥' 


C/V/7  Jf^Tr;  Economic  Causes  and  Results     293 

war,  purchased  in  England,  managed  to  effect  great  dam- 
age on  American  commerce.     The  Florida  and  the  Alabama 
scoured  the  high  seas,  seeking  merchantmen  flying  the 
Federal  flag.    Since  these  were  usually  wooden  saUing 
vessels  and  unarmed,  they  fell  easy  prey  to  the  Confederate 
.  'users,  and  the  loss  in  ships  sunk,  burned,  or  captured 
)unted  to  110,000  tons.    Abnormal  insurance  charges 
u!  the  difficulty  of  securing  cargoes  for  vessels  Uabk-  to 
A  i  -e,  rendered  ocean  commerce  unprofitable.    American 
s'7ii  o  were  held  in  port  or  made  over  to  the  government 
o-  "sold  foreigi."  at  ruinous  sacrifice.     The  ships  pur- 
ch..sed  by  the  government  were  converted  into  transports 
jr  cruisers,  and  did  effective  work  throughout  the  war, 
'  .ore  than  one  half  of  the  suddenly  improvised  Federal 
lavy  being  r  ade  up  of  ar'ned  merchantmen.     Four  fifths 
of  the  officers  and  five  sixths  of  the  men  came  directly  from 
the  merchant  service. 

The  falling  off  in  United  States  vessels  registered  for 
foreign  trade  amounted  to  one  million  tons.  The  pro- 
portion of  foreign  commerce  accruing  to  American  vessels 
dechned  from  66  per  cent  in  i860  to  27  per  cent  in  1865. 
The  transatlantic  trade  of  1866  exceeded  that  of  any 
previous  year,  and  our  merchants  bravely  strove  to  re- 
cover their  due  share  of  freight ;  but  it  was  a  losing  battle, 
for  they  came  into  competition  with  the  subsidized  I'nes 
of  hngl  >d.  In  vain  they  petitioned  for  government  aid 
ConRres  I'.varded  a  mail  subsidy  of  $15,000  to  a  line  run- 
ning from  xVew  York  to  Brazil,  and  another  of  $500,000  to 
the  Pacific  mnil  steamers,  but  no  such  support  was  vouch- 
safed to  entrepreneurs  in  the  Atlantic  service. 

American  shipbuilders,  too,  labored  under  hea\y  dis- 
advantages. The  excise  tax  of  2  per  cent  on  the  hulls  of 
\cssels  and  of  from  3  to  5  per  cent  on  marine  engines  was 
repealed  in  1868,  but  tariff  duties  on  cordage,  iron,  and 
^I'pper,  rangmg  from  30  to  45  per  cent,  were  allowed  to 
^t.md.  A  con-rressional  committee,  a-nointed  (1870)  to 
invcMiiT.te  the  shippinj?  industry,  recommenderi  thereueal 
^'1   ilie  duties  on   shipbuUders'   raw  materials.     Copper 


Report  of 
Joseph 
Nimmo, 
41st  Cong., 
lU  Session, 
Ex.  Docs., 
III. 


Johnson, 
Water 
Transporta- 
tion, 
Ch.  XX. 


Cong.  Globe, 

1H64, 
2117-2118, 

22&3, 

2372-2375. 

Wells,  ' 
S16-522. 

Rept.  of 
Lynch  Com- 
mittee. 
41st  Cong., 
2(1  Session, 
House  Rept. 
No.  28. 


fil^"- 


i^^BI 

i.^Hw. 

Mi 

^w 

4.-  ■ns 

^lAi 

i^^nB 

'<'M^- 

feMi 

m 

h 


I 


11 


I   i 


U 
I  il 


,  i  !5 


"(Hi 


I  M 

w  '^ 

'■  'f 

i 

f 

Bates, 
Ch.  XI. 


President's 
Message, 
41st  Cong., 
2d  Session, 
Ex.  Doc. 
IIS- 

Cong.  Rec- 
ord, VIII, 
Pt.  Ill, 
Appendix, 
a3-a6. 


Donaldson, 
33a-JSO. 

Sato,  4a5- 

PowHerly, 
Thirty  Years 
of  L:ibi)r, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Cong.  ()l()I)c, 

1150. 


294     Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

sheathing,  iron  rods  and  bars,  bolts,  etc.,  "  necessary  for 
the  construction  of  vessels  built  in  the  United  States  for 
the  foreign  trade  "  were  accordingly  admitted  free  under 
the  tariff  act  of  1872.    The  duties  were,  however   reim- 
posed  in  1875,  because  of  protests  from  the  men  who  had 
iron  and  copper  to  seU.    With  the  passing  of  the  wooden 
sailing  vessel,  our  preeminence  in  shipbuUding  was  lost. 
The  new  steamers  could  be  built  more  economically  m 
England,  where  fuel,  iron,  and  labor  were  comparatively 
cheap     There  was  some  agitation  for  the  admission  of 
foreign-buUt  ships  to  our  registry,  but  the  proposition  was 
defeated     The  shipbuilders  protested  against  the  reversal 
of  a  policy  that  had  held  for  eighty  years,  and  handicapped 
by   these   permanent  disadvantages,   our  ocean  marine 

steadily  declined. 

The  war  that  had  proved  so  disastrous  to  our  ocean 
marine  stimulated  the  growth  of  the  coastwise  rervice. 
The  transportation  of  troops  and  provisions  gave  proniable 
employment,  and  ocean  steamers  were  temporarily  con- 
verted to  this  trade.  The  tonnage  of  coasting  craft  rose 
from  2,599, V9  in  i860  to  3-353,657  i"  1865.  .Moreover, 
the  exploitation  of  the  lumber  lands  and  mineral  deposits 
of  the  Lake  Superior  region  brought  into  requisition  freight 
and  passenger  'steamers  of  size  and  speed  approaching  the 
sea-going  models.  The  traffic  of  the  Great  Lakes  began 
to  rival  the  transatlantic  trade  in  dimensions  and  value, 
and  offered  some  comi^nsation  for  the  vantage  lost  on 

the  high  seas. 

The  Homestead  Act.  —  Agitation  for  the  free  dis- 
tribution of  the  public  lands  had  l)cen  i)er8istent  and  un- 
flagging for  twenty  years  l)efore  the  war.  The  Free-Soil 
Democracy  had  led  the  movement  with  its  proixwal  that 
"  the  soil  of  our  extensive  domain  he  kept  free  for  the 
hardy  i)ionecrs  of  our  own  land  and  the  oppressed  an(l 
banished  of  other  lards  seeking  homes  of  comfort  an<l 
fields  of  enten)rise  in  the  New  World."  Whigs,  ikc 
Daniel  Webster,  hunninitarians.  like  Horace  Greeley, 
abolitionists,    like    Gerrit   Smith,    labor    reformers,    liKc 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     295 

George  Henry  Evans,  were  not  less  ardent  supporters  of 
a  democratic  land  policy.    In  1845  Andrew  Johnson  of 
Tennessee  had  brought  forward  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives a  resolution  in  favor  of  giving  every  homeless 
citizen  a  portion  of  the  national  domain,  and  Senator 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  introduced  a  bill  to  the  same  effect  in 
1849.    Several  times  a  homestead  bill  passed  the  House 
of  Representatives,  only  to  be  defeated  in  the  Senate,  the 
negative  vote  coming  largely  from  the  Southern  states, 
which  then  held  the  balance  of  power  in  the  upper  house. 
Finally  (June  19,  i860),  after  lengthy  conferences.  Senate 
and  House  agreed  to  concur  in  a  bill  providing  that  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  being  the  head  of  a  family, 
might  take  up  a  quarter  section  of  unappropriated  public 
land,  settle  thereon,  and  secure  title  after  proved  residence 
ot  five  years.     The  Senate's  contention,  that  a  cash  pay- 
ment of  twenty-five  cents  an  acre  be  required,  was  accepted 
by  the  House  with  considerable   demur,  but   even   .so, 
the  bill  was  vetoed  by  President  Buchanan.    In  a  message 
to  Congress  the  President  justified  this  action  as  follows. 
The  free  distribution  of  public  lands  would  be  unjust  to 
the  "  old  settlers,"  who  paid  $1.25  jier  acre  for  their  lands, 
and  wh(ise  "  labors  in  building  roads,  schools,  and  market 
towns  had  increased  the  value  of  the  adjacent  and  un- 
occupied lands  now  to  be  given  out  at  25  cents  an  acre." 
It  could  confer  no  benefits  on   artisans"  and  laborers  of 
factory  towns,  who  "  cannot,  even  by  emigrating  to  the 
West,  take  advantage  of  the  provisions  of  this  bill  without 
entering  upon  •'.  new  occui)ation,  for  which  their  habits  of 
life  have  rmdered  them  unfit."     It  would  oiwrate  to  the 
(lisulvanlagc  of  the  older  states,  whose  supply  of  public 
laii'ls  was  exhausted,  and  whose  [wpulation  would  be  drawn 
"If  l)y  the  prospect  of  cheap  lands  farther  west.      '  The 
"Ife--  of  free  farms  would  probably  have  a  ix)werful  effect 
!.i   encouraging   emigration,   especially    from    states    like 
Illinois. Tennessee. and  Kentucky,  to  the  \vest  of  the  Missis 
^Ppi.  and  could  not  fail  to  reduce  the  jirice  of  pn.perty 
""■"'••  *"^"f  iimits."    The  Presideni   further  raised   the 


Cong.  Globe, 
184^-1850, 
7S.  87. 

Cong.  Globe, 

1854,  Ap- 
pendix, 
207-J09. 


Donaldson, 
345' 


11 


If  . 


Li 


Cong.  Globe 
t8M-i86i, 
40,  13J-IJQ, 

QOQ-glO. 


296      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

question  whether  it  was  "expedient  to  proclaim  to  all 
nations  of  the  earth  that  whoever  shall  arrive  in  this 
country  from  a  foreign  shore,  and  declare  his  intention  to 
become  a  citizen,  shall  receive  a  farm  of  160  acres  at  a  cost 
of  25  '^r  20  cents  per  acre,  if  he  wUl  only  reside  on  it  and 
cultivate  it."    The  loss  to  the  government  in  the  way  of 
revenue  would,  moreover,  be  considerable.    The  annual 
income  from  this  source  ($4,000,000)  would  be  reduced 
to  $1,000,000.     "  The  people  of  the  United  States  have 
advanced  with  steady  but  rapid  strides  to  their  present 
condition  of  power  and  prosperity.    They   have   been 
guided  in  their  progress  by  the  fixed  principle  of  pro- 
tecting the  equal  rights  of  all,  whether  they  be  rich  or 
poor     No  agrariar  sentiment  has  ever  prevaUed  among 
them     The  honest  poor  man,  by  frugality  and  industry 
can   in  any  part  of  our  country,  acquire  a  competence 
for  himself  and  his  family,  and  in  doing  this  he  feels  that 
he  eats  the  bread  of  independence.    He  desires  no  charily, 
either  from  the  government  or  from  his  neighbors.     This 
bill,  which  proposes  to  give  him  land,  at  an  almost  nominal 
price,  out  of  the  property  of  the  government,  will  go  lar 
to  demoraUze  the  people,  and  repress  this  noble  spirit  ot 
independence.     It  may  introduce   among  us  those  per- 
nicious social  theories  which  have  proved  so  disastrous 
in  other  countries." 

When  the  slave  states  had  withdrawn  their  representa- 
tives from  the  Federal  legislature,  the  Homestead   Hill 
passed  both  Houses  without  opposition,  and  received  the 
signature  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  May  20, 1862.    The  acreane 
charge  did  not  appear  in  the  final  enactment,  and  a  special 
concession  was  made  to  Union  soldiers  in  that  they  \\ere 
allowed  to  deduct  from  the  five  years'  occupancy  required 
to  establish  title,  the  term  of  army  service.     Homestead 
entries  were  inaugurated  immediately,  and  proved  \»ry 
popular.    Quarter  section  farms  to  the  amount  »)f  twenty- 
seven  million  acres  were  claimed  between  1H67  and  \^:^ 
The  revenue  from  land  sales  declined  as  Rucnanan  had 
foreseen,  but  the  loss  was  soon  made  good  in  the  cnwr^^nl 


"sssj^mswax.m 


Civti  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     297 


tax-paying  capacity  of  the  West.  To  some  extent  popu- 
lation was  drawn  from  the  East,  and  the  value  of  agri- 
cultural land  in  the  seaboard  states  depreciated.  The 
center  of  population,  of  wealth,  and  of  manufactures 
moved  steadily  west.  The  opportunity  to  get  possession 
of  land  without  money  and  without  price  attracted  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  Old  World  peasants  to  the  United 
States.  Between  i860  and  1870,  800,000  Germans  and 
456,000  Irish  came  to  America,  and  the  inflow  augmented 
from  year  to  year,  until,  in  1873,  the  annual  immigration 
attained  the  startling  total  of  460,000. 

The  democratic  land  policy  was  far  from  prejudicial  to 
the  artisan  class,  since  operatives  in  the  East,  young  men 
at  least,  were  free  to  choose  between  a  farm  and  a  trade. 
Suri>lus  labor  was  thus  drained  off  to  the  West,  and  the 
rate  of  wages  was  readily  maintained  at  the  standard  of 
living  set  by  the  self-employed  farmer.  Speculation  in 
land  and  land  monojxjly  v  ere  rendered  difficult,  since  no 
man  might  take  up  more  than  two  quarter  sections  —  one 
<»l  arable  land  and  one  of  timber  land.  The  average 
si/e  of  holdings  declined  from  iqq  acres  in  i860  to  153  In 
\^',o,  and  134  in  18S0,  and  intensive  farming  became 
nmre  general. 

The  Transcontinental  Railways.  —  The  project  for  a 
railway  that  should  span  the  Cordillcran  Range,  make 
connection  between  the  Mississip|)i  Valley  and  the  Cali- 
fornia coast,  and  thus  serve  as  channel  for  the  westward 
movement  of  population  as  well  as  facilitate  trade  with 
the  Pacific  ports,  with  China  and  the  lar  East,  had  been 
aj;ii,iiing  the  minds  of  men  for  twenty  years  before  it 
\'  actually  undertaken.  The  scheme  was  first  brought 
iKforc  Congress  in  a  memorial  drawn  up  by  Asa  Whitney 
"1  i>'4,v  This  far-seeing  New  York  merchant  [>roposed 
'o  l.uild  a  road  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the  mouth  of  the 
("oiiiml)ia  River,  and  petitioned  for  a  grant  of  land  .si.xty 
niiio-  wide  along  the  entire  route.  This  was  to  be  assigned 
in  ton-mile  sections  as  c<mstiucti(>n  proceeded,  and  there- 
alter  )>xni\  by  the  railway  company  to  settler?  as  fast  as 


Davis,  The 
Union  P'acific 
Railway, 

( h.  i-m. 


Sniallcy, 
Northern 
Pacific 
Railrwiil, 
Ch.  VII,  X. 


■^SmS.    ::'^JW3'S»S 


,,,-yv,     ■,ti?i. 


••jieLC^ 


-•tta^ij 


r! 


Whitney, 
Project  for 
a  Railroad 
to  the 
Paci&c 


I 


I    T  i 


If  if 


II,  48(>-,iig 


298      Indnstnal  Histoiy  of  the  United  States 

thev  arrived.    "It  is  proposed  to  estabUsh  an  entirely 
new  system  of  settlement,  on  which  the  hopes  of  success 
are  bied,  and  upon  which  all  depend.    The  settler  on  the 
Une  of  the  road  would,  as  soon  as  his  house  or  cabin  was 
up  and  a  crop  in,  find  employment  to  grade  the  road ;  the 
next  season,  when  his  crop  will  have  ripened,  there  u^uld 
be  a  market  for  it  at  his  door,  by  those  in  the  same  situa- 
tion as  himself  the  season  before ;  if  any  surplus,  he  would 
have  the  road  at  low  toUs  to  take  it  to  market ;  and  if  he 
had  in  the  first  instance  paid  for  his  land,  the  money  would 
go  back,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  for  labor  and  materials 
for  the  work.     So  that  in  one  year  the  settler  would  hax  e 
his  home,  with  settlement  and  civiUzation  surrounding, 
a  demand  for  his  labor,  a  market  at  his  door  for  his  produce, 
a  railroad  to  communicate  with  civiUzation  and  markets, 
without  having  cost  one  dollar.     And  the  settler  who  might 
not  have  means  in  money  to  purchase  land,  his  labor  on 
the  road  and  a  first  crop  would  give  him  that  means,  and 
he  too  would  in  one  year  have  his  home  with  the  same 
advantages  and  equally  independent." 

Whitney  esUmated  the  cost  of  construction  at  $50,000,000, 
and  this  sum.  together  with  running   expei^ses  for   the 
initial  years,  he  exi^ected  to  realize  from  land  sales.      1  he 
road  was  to  be  a   national   highway,  operated  in  the 
public  interest,  and  the  rates  charged  for  transportation 
were  to  be  merely  sufficient  to  cover  current  expenses. 
Whitney  advocated  his  patriotic  project  on  the  platform 
and  in  the  press  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
country,  making  modifications  in  his  plan  from  time  Kj 
time  with  a  view  to  securing  the  support  of  mfluentuil 
cities.     His  first  route  was  drawn  from  Milwaukee  throui,'h 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  to  Portland,  Oregon;    the 
second  connected  Prairie  du  Chien  with  Tacoma;    the 
third,  in  deference  to  Southern  interests,  was  to  run  fn-m 
Memphis  through  New  Mexico,  to  San  Francisco.     Bilb 
eml>odving  these  and  other  routes  came  before  Congress 
session'  after  session  in  the  last  decade  before  the  C  ivU 
War,   but   sectio;  ul    feciiiig    ran   high.     Southern   renrc- 


wm^m^-rjii^ummk 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     299 

sentatives  achracated  a  line  from  Charleston  through 
Vicksburg  to  San  Diego;  the  miners  of  California  and 
Nevada  clamorwl  for  a  central  route  via  the  Salt  Lake 
Trail  from  St.  Lauis  to  Sacramento.  Every  party  and  all 
public  men  declared  in  favor  of  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road; but  local  interests  were  strong  enough  to  defeat 
each  specific  measure  until  the  Republican  party  came  into 
full  control  of  the  national  government. 

By  enactments  of  1.S62  and  1864  Congress  chartered  the  Davis. 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  and  authorized  the  con-  Ch.  iv. 
struction  of  a  road  from  Omaha  directly  west  to  Ogden,  Smallcy. 
the  proposed  point  of  junction  with  the  Central  Pacific  Ch.xii. 
Railway,  already  incorporated  by  the  state  of  California.  '""' 
Rival  interests  on  the  Missouri  River  were  provided  for 
by  branch  roads  to  Sioux  City,  St.  Joseph,  Leavenworth, 
and  Kansas  City ;  but  the  trunk  line  made  direct  connec- 
tion with  Chicago  and  the  railway  systems  centering  in 
Xew   York    and    Boston.     The    incorporated    companies 
were  given  the  right  of  way  along  the  projected  route 
(private  property  being  subject  to  condemnation  for  this 
use),  together  with  such  lands  as  might  be  needed  for 
stations,   workshops,    etc.,    and    the   privilege   of   taking 
timber,  stone,  and  earth,  as  might  be  required  for  the  track. 
To  defray  the  costs  of  construction  Congress  offered  liberal 
grants  from  the  public  domain.     The  railroad  lands  were 
assigned,  as  construction  proctH.'ded,  in  ten  alternate  sec- 
tions within  a  tract  twenty  miles  in  width,  on  each  side 
the  roadbed,  grants  previously  made  and  squatters'  claims 
being,  of  course,  excepted.     Thus,  within  forty-one  days 
after  the  passage  of  the  Homestead  Act.  Congress  au-  DonaWwn, 
thnnzcd  the  giving  away  of  2.^,500.000  acres  of  the  public  »'"--'7i- 
'I'imain  to  private  corporations  and  inaugurated  a  new 
phase  of  land   monopoly.     The    reservation  of  alternate 
actions  for  distribution  to  actual  .settlers  was  intended 
'"  MTure  the  people's  rights,  but  the  ultimate  effect  was 
'"  ruse  the  value  of  the  railroad  lands,  which  were  u'^ually 
withheld  from  sale. 
V  -MiKress  further  aided  this  vast  transportation  enter- 


nfKmfOBsnssssB^s^wfm  ^^fi^ 


(I   ' 


iW* 


Fite.  Ch.  Ill 

Sanborn, 
Congres- 
i  tonal 
Grants  of 
Land  in  Aid 
of  Railways, 
Ch.  V,  VI. 
VII,  VIII. 


Powell, 
La  nils  of 
the  .\rid 
Region, 
Ch.  X. 


300      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

nrise  bv  offering  to  guarantee  the  bonds  issued  by  the  com- 
So  2e  amount  of  $65,000,000.    The  bonds  were  to 
Sor  thirty  years  at  six  per  cent,  and  -nsUtut^  a  sec^^^^^^^ 
mortgage  Uen  on  the  raUroad  property.    The  first  year  s 
SterLt  was  paid  from  the  United  States  treasury,  and  the 
^oveSnent  Jtood  sponsor  for  subsequent  interest  charges, 
Twe^  for  the  payment  of  the  principal.  ^:--^^^^^; 
the  bonds  were  readily  disposed  of  at  pubhc  sale.    Con- 
st^ction   proceeded    rapidly.    Irishmen    were   importec 
I  laborers^n  the  eastern  divisions  of  ^e  -ad    ^^^^ 
Chinese  built  the  greater  part  ^^ /^%f  "^!^^/f "^1 
The  entire  line  was  in  operation  by  1869.    The  mitiaA 
Dasseneer  tariff  of  ten  cents  a  mile  was  so  high  as  to  be 
weSh  prohibitory.    Congress  had  reserved  the  right 
to  regiUate  fares  and  freight  rates  as  soon  as  the  net  earn- 
ings should  exceed  ten  per  cent  on  the  investment  but  the 
X  were  reduced  by  the  management  long  before  th,. 
hannv  consummation  was  attained. 

Wkh  the  closeof  the  war  and  the  disbandmgof  the  arm.es 
the  demand  for  transportation  facUiUes  to  the  new  \Vc-st 
orew  even  more  urgent.    In  the  decade  following  the  char- 
Sng  of  the  Union  Pacific,  the  bulk  of  railroad  building 
iriest  of  the  Mississippi  River.    In  the  first  thirty 
years  of  railroad  history,  construction  had  followed  o, 
the  heels  of  trade,  and  routes  were  determmed  by  prospect 
of  profits,  but  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  inaugurated  a 
nesv  epoch.     If  the  West  was  to  be  developed  by  free  lal.or. 
railroads  must  be  pushed  in  advance  of  population,  in 
advance  of  the  organization  of  state  governments.     Fht 
costs  of  building  were  enormous  and  the  traffic  light  in 
nroportion  to  distance  covered.     These  great  undertaKu.- 
°ould  only  be  set  on  foot  by  aid  of  the  United  States  gov.  rn- 
ment.     Within  the  ten  years  following  the  grant  to  .he 
Union  Pacific,  .15,000.000  acre,  of  pubhc    and  had  l>..n 
assigned  to  various  railroad  enteqinses.  always  on  cm- 
dition  of  completing  the  roadway  within  a  specified  tern. 
,  _r    .i.„  »c  «..re  forfeited    bv    noncomphanit. 

several  u;     1::^    f;!-.ii'-  ■    >-    -       .  ^     ■ 

but  the  lands  secured  by  railroad  con>orations  amoun  cu 


[|i       I 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     301 


to  102,000,000  acres,  nearly  half  the  sum  total  of  the  farm 
area  granted  imder  the  Homestead  Act. 

The  sacrifices,  economic  and  social,  involved  in  the 
building  of  our  transcontinental  railways  have  been  heavy, 
but  the  gains  to  the  settlers  and  to  the  country  at  large 
have  been  beyond  computation.    Home  seekers  make  their 
way  to  new  lands  at  far  less  cost  in  time  and  money  and 
in  physical  wear  and  tear,  than  in  the  days  of  the  prairie 
schooner  and  the  wayside  camp.     The  great  trunk  lines 
rendered  it  possible  to  sell  Western  products  to  Eastern 
markets,  the  manufacturing  sections  were  brought  within 
reach  of  the  mining  towns  and  lumber  camps  of  the  Rockies. 
Oriental  markets  were  opened  up  to  the  cotton  planters 
of  the  South,  to  the  cotton  manufacturers  of  New  England. 
Whitney's  dream  was  at  last  fulfilled :   "  Then  the  drills 
and  sheetings  of  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island  and  Massa- 
chusetts and  other  manufactures  of  the  United  States  may 
be  transported  to  China  in  thirty  days ;  and  the  teas  and 
rich  silks  of  China,  in  exchange,  come  back  to  New  Orleans, 
to  Charleston,   to  Washington,   to  Baltimore,  to  Phila- 
delphia, New  York  and  to  Boston  in  thirty  days  more." 
The  Crisis  of  1873.  —  This  epoch  of  unparalleled  pros- 
perity was  terminated  by  a  business  panic  and  industrial 
depression,  exceeding  in  extent  and  severity  any  the  coun- 
try had  yet  experienced.     Every  line  of  business  had  felt 
the  stimulus  of  war  tariflFs  and  war  prices.     In  anticipa- 
tion of  unusual  profits,  entrepreneurs  borrowed  heavily 
and  at  high  rates  of  interest  to  develop  iron  works  and 
clothing  factories,  flour  mills  and  abattoirs,  mines  and  oil 
refineries,  without  much  regard  to  prospects  for  disposing 
)f  the  goods.    The  inevitable  consequences  of  this  specu- 
lative spirit  were  overproduction  in  every  branch  of  in- 
dustry, a  general  glut  of  the  market,  and  a  ruinous  decline 
in  prices.     The  reduction  of  import  duties  in  1872,  and  the 
menace  of  foreign  competition,  was  sufficient  to  capsize 
some  of  these  overloaded  enterprises.     Unable  to  market 
their  stock  at  paying  prices,  many  business  firms  failed  to 
meet  their  ohligations  and  went  into  bankruptcy.     The 


Martin,  The 
Grange 
Movement, 
Pt.  I. 


Burton, 
Financial 
Crises, 
286-289. 

Wright, 

Industrial 

Depressions, 

U.S.  Census, 
IQOO,  X,  8. 


Rhoties, 
Unite<i 
States,  Vn, 
Ch.  XI 


iiHjt 


1 1 


If  i 


i 


jli.i 


302      Industnal  History  of  the  United  States 

influence  of  industrial  depression  is  seen  in  statistics  of 
manufactures  for  the  decade,  . 

Another  form  of  speculative  mania  was  represented  in 
Western  railroads.  The  Uberal  poUcy  of  the  government 
gave  promoters  a  basis  on  which  to  soUat  subscriptions  to 
stocks  and  bonds  that  could  bring  no  return  to  the  pur- 
chT^r.  The  sums  invested  in  raUway  construction  during 
Se  dLade  foUowing  on  the  chartering  of  the  U-on  Pacihc 
aggregated  more  than  a  biUion  doUars.     The   railroads 


mroRTS 

1,too,ooo,ooo 


'Relation  of  Imports,  Salw  of  Public  l;»'«}«.  •"" 
Railroad  Con.tructlon  to  Floanclal  Crl.e. 

-Sales  of  Pub:,c  Land.     --jMileaBe  of  R.ilro.d  Construction 

-Amount  of  imports  |  Th.  Cns.s  Ye... 


built  between  1867  and  1873  amounted  to  thirty-two  thou- 
sand miles,  a  sum  total  exceeding  the  total  mileage  of  iSy ,. 
An  undue  proportion  of  the  available  capita  of  the  country 
was  sunk  in  roadbed  and  rolling  stock.  Unable  to  mcc 
The  interest  on  the  bon.ied  dd.t,  much  less  provide  for 
ti:  ,^y-ent  of  the  principal,  many  of  these  optimistic- 
transportation  schemes  were  ior.e.l  u.xo  ounkruptQ-. 


Civil  War:  Ecotwmic  Causes  and  Results     303 


The  Homestead  Act  contributed  its  full  share  to  the 
craze  for  mvestment.  The  pioneer  farmers,  eager  to  im- 
prove their  little  properties,  borrowed  from  Eastern 
capitalists,  mortgaging  their  lands  as  security.  They, 
no  less  than  the  railroad  companies,  conmiitted  the  mis- 
take of  sinking  in  improvements  more  money  than  they 
could  make  good  out  of  surplus  products  for  years  to  come. 
The  faraway  creditor  was  fain  to  foreclose  the  mortgage 
and  take  the  land  in  lieu  of  payment  —  an  asset  that  could 
not  readily  be  converted  into  cash  ;  thus  a  Kansas  mortgage 
became  the  synonym  for  a  losing  investment.  The  money 
resources  of  the  business  worid  were  further  strained  by 
disastrous  fires  and  the  rebuilding  of  Chicago  (1871)  and 
of  Boston  (1872). 

For  two  years  preceding  the  crisis,  money  was  scarce 
and  the  rates  of  interest  high,  notably  in  the  autumn, 
when  farm  products  were  being  moved  to  market.  In 
October,  1872,  there  was  a  deficiency  of  more  than  a  million 
dollars  in  the  bank  reserves  of  New  York  City.  In  Septem- 
ber of  1873,  financial  operations  were  paralyzed  by  a  series 
of  colossal  failures ;  the  leading  bankers  of  the  city  had 
made  unwarrantable  advances  to  various  railroad  enter- 
prises and  were  forced  to  close  their  doors  against  de- 
positors. The  Brooklyn  Trust  Company  was  heavily 
involved  with  the  New  Haven  and  Willimantic  Railroad ; 
the  Mercantile  Warehouse  and  Security  Company  with 
the  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas;  Kenyon  Cox  and 
Company  with  the  Canada  Southern;  Fisk  and  Hatch 
with  the  Vanderbilt  Roads ;  Jay  Cooke  and  Company  with 
the  Northern  Pacific.  The  assignment  of  Jay  Cooke, 
the  leading  financier  of  that  day,  was  the  signal  for  a  general 
collapse.  More  than  five  thousand  failures  occurred  in 
the  i)anic  year  with  a  loss  of  $228,500,000,  and  the  number 
of  bankruptcies  steadily  increased,  till  in  1878  the  appalling 
total  of  10,478  was  reached.  The  industrial  depression 
following  on  the  Wall  Street  panic  was  even  more  fatal 
to  productive  industries.  The  sum  of  the  failures  for 
•'unlry  at  large  aggregated  47.000   and  the  money' 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
653-657. 


Sherman,  I, 
488-S06. 


Smalley, 
Ch.  XX, 
XXI,  XXV, 
XXVI. 


Rhodes, 
Hist.of  U.S.. 
VII.  Ch.  XI. 


lU.. 


1   .  %' 


ii\n 


It 


J I 


Mitchell. 
Organized 
Labor, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Powderly, 
Ch.I. 


McNeill, 
Ch.V. 

Moody, 
Land  and 
Labor, 
Ch.  VII. 


File, 
Ch.  VII. 


304      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

io«  *T  2ooQOQ7';4,  while  some  three  mmion  workmen 
w   ;  th^owH;?  of  employment  by  the  dosing  down  o 
business    enterprises.    The    consequent    curtailment    m 
the Tr^and  Jgoods  increased  the  difficulty  of  the  situa- 
tion    Gradually,  however,  the  weight  of  depression  was 
hrown  off,  as  railroads  and  farms  began  to  return  some 
evenue,  mines  and  mills  were  reopened,  the  unemployed 
ound  work  and  were  once  more  able  to  earn  and  spend, 
Se  with  the  revival  of  the  market  for  goods,  manu- 
facturers took  heart  and  set  their  engines  in  motion 

The  Labor  Movement.  -  The  engrossing  problems  en- 
tailed by  the  Civil  War  had  diverted  attention  from  the 
nerests^f  free  labor.    The  workingmen  of  the  North 
threw  themselves  heart  and  soul  into  the  con&c^  -^   h 
^lave  Dower  and  gladly  enlisted  for  service.    The  draf t  ng 
of  a  mmbn  men  into  the  army  reduced  the  supply  of  labor 
to  the  i^oint  where  there  was  work  at  good  wages  for  al 
emainng;   but  when  the  soldiers  returned  to  mdustnal 
rthe  fabor  market  was  glutted  and  dfficulties  ensued. 
Wages  as  represented  in  paper  currency  had  risen  rapKll> 
during  the  war,  and  the  abnormal  rates  .were  maintained 
brconcerted   'resistance   to    reduction.    Industnal   con- 
ditions were  more  favorable  to  organization  than  eNcr 
before  for  the  capacity  of  factories  and  workshops  had 
be  n    rnultiplied,    and   'arger   bodies    of   operatives  were 
massed  in  one  establishment.    Machinery  had  superseded 
hand  labor  in  well-nigh  ever>^  field,  and  the  workmen, 
rendered  entirely  dependent  upon  capital  for  employmen  , 
organized  in  self-defense.    The  unprecedented  accumuh. 
tion  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  captains  of  induslo^ 
served   to    further    emphasize   the    antagonism   between 
master  and  man,  so  that  the  necessity  for  collective    a  - 
gaining  was  forced  home  upon  employees  of  every^';^;: 
The  movement  toward  union  on  a  national  scale  had 
been  apparent  before  the  close  of  the  war.     The  Brotlur- 
hood  of  Locomotive  Engineers  was  orgamzed  in   ^>^ 
the  rig.-ir  Makers  International  Umon  in  1864,  and  tne 
International  Union  of  Bricklayers  and  Masons  m  the  >^ 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     305 


year.  By  1866  some  thirty  or  forty  national  trade  or- 
ganizations had  been  set  on  foot.  The  principal  demands 
of  the  Workingmen's  party  — the  abolition  of  chattel 
slavery,  free  distribution  of  public  lands,  and  a  ten-hour 
day  — were  accomplished  facts.  The  labor  leaders  of 
the  post  bellum  era  demanded  an  eight-hour  day,  pro- 
tective legislation  for  women  and  children  employed 
in  factories,  the  scientific  investigation  of  labor  prob- 
lems, etc. 

The  new  labor  movement  repudiated  both  the  great 
political  parties  as  untrustworthy  and  aimed  to  affiliate 
the  trade  unions  in  a  common  endeavor  to  better  working 
conditions,  not  for  their  own  members  merely,  but  for  the 
unskilled  workers  as  well.  A  Nationa'  Labor  Union  Con- 
vention was  called  at  Baltimore  in  1866  and  was  attended 
by  one  hundred  delegates,  representing  labor  organiza- 
tions in  all  the  Northern  and  in  three  border  states.  The 
conventions  held  at  Chicago  in  1867  and  at  New  York  in 
1868  were  even  more  widely  representative.  The  total 
membership  of  the  Workingmen's  party  was  estimated  in 
the  latter  year  at  six  hundred  and  forty-five  thousand.  This 
potent  constituency  sent  representatives  to  several  of  the 
state  legislatures,  and  was  even  able  to  bring  some  in- 
fluence to  bear  upon  the  national  government.  In  1869 
Congress  passed  a  bill  promising  an  eight-hour  day  for  all 
laborers  in  the  employ  of  the  United  States.  The  National 
Labor  Union  conventions  held  at  Boston  in  1870,  and  at 
Philadelphia  in  187 1,  gave  evidence,  however,  of  faction 
and  waning  strength.  At  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  1872,  a 
candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States  was 
ncnninated,  but  this  proved  a  fatal  mistake.  Tne  attempt 
of  a  few  ambitious  leaders  to  use  the  organization  as  a 
political  machine  wrecked  the  undertaking. 

Better  success  attended  the  Labor  Reform  party,  which 
organized  in  Massachusetts  in  1S69,  fifteen  thousand 
s^trong.  In  that  same  year  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts passed  a  bill  providing  for  the  State  Bureau  of 
L  liior  statistics,  the  tirst-lruits  of  the  demand  for  scientific 
inquiry  into  the  grievances  of  the  wage  earners. 


Commons 
and  Andrews, 
Labor 
Movement,  I, 


North. 
Factory 
'  lyislation 
in  New 
England. 


;«» 


MKROCOrr   RISOIUTION   TIST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


/APPLIED  IN/MGE    Inc 

1653  Em  Main  SIfmI 

RochMl»f.    Htm   York         14609       US* 

(716)   482  -  0300-  Phon. 

(716)  288-S9a9  -Fa> 


f  ' 


f; 


;UI 


I'll 


i 


306      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


File. 
Ch.  I. 


Kept. 
Industrial 
Commission, 
VI,  3<>-»43. 
a2S-i68. 

Adams, 
The  Ciranger 
Movement. 


Moody, 
Land  and 
Labor. 

Ch.  in. 


Wages  .nlpricos  Prevalirng  In  thrUnited  SUtes,  1840- 1900 

Wage»  P''"' 

Btf  Lin.  (1840-1891-  for  w.g..  .nd  prices,  th.  .ver.g.  of  1860^ 

B...  Lin.  ,  1 89 1  - 1 900 .  for  «.g..,  th.  .ve,.g.  of  1 89 1 ;  fo'  pr.c,  th,  .ver.g.  of  1 890- 

1 892 
Currency  Quot.tiof>.  1860-1879  reduced  to  equi».l.nt  in  gold^ 

The  Fanners'  Movement.  -  Dunng  the  latter  half  o 
the  nineteenth  century  the  agricultural  population  had 
little  in  common  with  the  mechanics  and  operatives  ot 
the  cities.    The  farmers  were  property  oWners  and  tax- 
payers, and  naturally  conservative,  and  there  was  no  large 
class  of   agricultural   laborers   or  cash   tenants.     Every 
able-bodied  man  exi)ected  to  acquire  land,  whether  by 
a  homestead  claim  or  by  the  slower  process  <^  farming  on 
shares     All  that  the  farmers  asked  was  a  fair  chance  to 
market  their  products.    Their  grievances  were  the  coni- 
mission  charges  of  the  middleman  who  forwarded  their 
grain  to  the  flour  mills  at  Minneapolis,  their  cattle  to  the 
packing  houses  at  Chicago,  and  secured  the  hon  s  share 
of  the  profits  on  the  transaction.    The  raUroads.  more- 
over   whose  advent  had  been  heralded  with  unalloyed 
satisfaction,  were  now  charged  with  imposing  exorbitant 
freight  rates  and  hxing  their  tariiTs  on  the  principle  ..f 
charcring  all  the  market  would  bear.     The  railroad  land, 
sold  In  extensive  tracts  to  the  highest  bidder,  came  ^^^W 
the  hands  of  capitalists,  who  introduced  machinery  an.l 


\\- 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     307 

large-scale  production  and  secured  special  favors  in  the 
freighting  of  their  products.  The  import  duties,  levied 
primarily  in  the  interest  of  manufacturers,  added  to  the 
cost  of  groceries,  clothing,  implements,  and  building 
materials,  while  curtailing  the  European  market  for  agri- 
cultural produce.  Only  the  wool  growers  got  a  com- 
pensating advantage  in  the  way  of  enhanced  prices.  Most 
of  the  Western  farmers  were  heavily  in  debt,  and  the 
contraction  of  the  currency,  with  the  consequent  fall  in 
prices,  rendered  it  difficult  to  meet  obligations  incurred 
during  the  inflation  period. 

In  1870  the  aggrieved  farmers  began  to  agitate  for  re- 
medial legislation.  The  Patrons  of  Industry  had  been 
organized  (1S66)  to  render  farming  a  pleasanter  and  more 
remunerative  occupation.  They  had  begun  with  an  attempt 
to  reduce  expenses  by  cooperative  buying ;  they  now  un- 
dertook to  regulate  freight  rates,  and  so  to  reduce  the  cost 
of  marketing  their  products.  The  Granges  (so  called 
from  the  grange  or  local  organization)  were  strong  in  the 
upper  Mississippi  Valley,  and  they  succeeded  in  inducing 
the  legislatures  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  Wis- 
consin to  fix  maximum  rates  for  transportation  charges. 
These  laws  were  bitterly  contested  by  the  railvv;iy  com- 
panies and  finally  repealed,  but  the  movement  was  not 
without  efTect.  The  extent  to  which  a  railroad  deter- 
mines the  industrial  development  of  the  region  served 
was  brought  to  public  attention,  and,  since  the  granger 
laws  were  declared  constitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court, 
a  precedent  for  state  control  was  clearly  established. 

The  Industrial  Transformation  of  the  South 


Elliott, 
American 
Farms, 
94-109. 


Peffer, 

The  Farmer's 

Side. 


Martin,  His- 
tory of  the 
Grange 
Movement, 
Pt.  VI. 


Hadley, 
Railroad 
Transporta- 
tion, 129- 
139. 


Adams, 
Railroads, 

Dot  rick. 
Efforts  of 
the  Granger 
Acts. 


For  the  North,  the  Civil  War  had  inaugurated  a  new  era  Schwab, 
of  material  expansion ;    for  Southern  industry,  it  meant   ^^  X"- 
coniiilete  prostration.     The  Confederacy,  being  the  scene  Gamer, 
of  ci inflict,  suffered  incalculably  more  than  the  loyal  states,   •^i'™"'"'"'^- 
Ti.'.vns  were  burned,  bridges  wrecked,  failrtmd  tracks  torn   Mississippi, 
up,  plantations  fallen  to  ruin.    Cotton,  the  only  marketable  ch  iv. 


.1 

I 


'%. 


II  if 


If 

if 


U-     M 


Dunning, 
Reconstruc- 
tion. 

Rhodes, 

VI. 

Ch.  32,  37  ; 

VII, 

Ch.  41,  42- 

Hammond, 
127. 


Du  Bois, 
Souls  of 
Black  Folk, 
Ch.  II. 
Gamer, 
Ch.  XVI. 

Washington, 
Story  of 
the  Negro, 
II.  Ch.  I. 


Fleming, 
Industrial 
System  in 
Alabama 
after  the 
Civil  War. 


Hammond, 
Ch.  IV. 


308      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

crop,  had  been  used  for  breastworks,  confiscated,  or  ren- 
dered unsalable  by  exposure.  The  wealthy  were  im- 
poverished by  the  repudiation  of  the  Confederate  currency 
and  Confederate  bonds;  the  poor  were  destitute.  One 
third  o."  ^he  adult  males  of  the  white  population  had  fallen 
in  battle  or  returned  home  invalided  and  incapacitated  for 
work,  and  the  proportion  of  breadwinners  was  seriously 
reduced.  Slavery,  the  labor  reliance  of  the  old  South 
was  lost  beyond  recovery.  Lai.u  had  depreciated  to  hall 
its  ante-bellum  value,  and  the  capital  with  which  to  make 
good  the  devastations  of  war  was  not  to  be  found  south  o! 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 

The  disasters  of  war  and  reconstruction  did  not  fall  or 
the  white  population  alone.  The  emancipated  black; 
suffered  for  want  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  and  thou 
sands  of  negroes  perished  of  hunger  and  disease.  Theri 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  loss  of  life  was  four  time 
greater  for  blacks  than  for  whites.  The  Freedmen' 
Bureau  did  much  to  relieve  this  appalling  destitution  an( 
to  set  the  freedmen  on  the  way  to  self-support ;  but  i 
was  obliged  to  work  through  the  military  organizatior 
Army  officers,  however  well  intentioned,  are  hardly  fittt'< 
to  deal  with  a  complicated  economic  situation. 

The  Labor  Problem.  —  The  twenty  years  following  tli 
downfall  of  the  Confederacy  witnessed  a  change  in  tli 
industrial  order  of  the  South  that  may  fairly  be  termed  a 
agricultural  revolution.  With  emancipation,  three  millio 
laborers  passed  immediately  from  a  state  of  dependenc 
and  rigid  surveillance  to  absolute  freedom.  The  eronomi 
tie  between  master  and  slave  was  suddenly  broken ;  the  on 
was  forced  to  seek  laborers,  and  the  other  employmen 
in  the  open  market.  Both  were  unaccustomed  to  the  wuj 
relation,  and  both  found  difficulty  in  estimating  in  tern 
of  money  the  services  that  had  hitherto  been  rendered  f< 
mere  subsistence.  The  freedmen,  eager  to  realize  tl 
blessings  of  libertv  and  esteeming  labor  a  badge  of  slaver; 
wandered  about  the  country  in  search  of  pleasure,  ai 
rapidly  gravitated  to  the  towns.    They  worked  only  undi 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     309 

the  compulsion  of  absolute  want,  and  pay  day  was  usually 
followed  by  a  week  of  idleness. 

The  planters,  handicapped  by  the  losses  of  the  war  and 
unable  to  command  ready  money,  advanced  rations  to 
their  laborers  but  postponed  the  payment  of  wages  till  the 
crops  were  in.  Even  then  they  sometimes  failed  to  make 
over  the  money  due,  and  the  negroes  grew  suspicious. 
The  unsatisfactoriness  of  the  hiring  system  is  evidenced 
by  the  decline  in  wage  rates  from  $137.50  per  year  in  i860 
to  $129  in  1867,  and  $100  in  1868.  The  plantation 
system,  profitable  only  with  gangs  of  cheap  laborers 
subject  to  absolute  control,  broke  down  under  these 
conditions. 

The  attempt  to  grow  cotton  with  borrowed  capital  and 
wage  labor  having  failed,  landowners  began  to  lease  estates 
on  shares.  Tracts  of  from  forty  to  eighty  acres  were 
rented  to  the  more  reliable  negroes  on  varying  conditions. 
If  the  landlord  furnished  seed,  mule,  plow,  and  rations,  he 
was  entitled  to  two  thirds  the  crop.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  renter  supplied  food,  he  kept  half  the  crop.  If  he 
fed  himself  and  owned  stock  and  implements,  he  kept  two 
tliirds  the  cotton  grown.  A  negro  who  had  acquired  a 
rei)utation  for  intelligence  and  industry  might  secure 
land  at  a  stipulated  rental  in  cotton  or  money  and  thus  be 
free  from  super\'ision.  Planters  were  ready  to  sell  on 
easy  terms  considerable  portions  of  their  heavily  encum- 
bered estates,  and  in  a  series  of  good  seasons,  with  fair 
prices,  such  a  tenant  might  clear  enough  to  buy  the 
land.  By  1874,  within  ten  years  after  emancipation,  the 
ne^ro  farmers  of  Georgia  had  thus  acquired  338,769 
acres. 

The  poor  whites,  too,  made  good  use  of  this  chance  to 
pet  possession  of  land  and  so  secure  opportunity  for  self- 
^'upiMirt.  The  necessities  of  planters  combined  with  the 
ambition  of  landless  laborers  to  break  up  the  great  estates, 
and  the  old-time  plantations  crumbled  away  into  little 
farrnv  The  tendency  is  evident  in  the  statistics  of  farm 
acreage. 


Du  Bois, 
The  Negro 
Farmer, 

79-81. 


Kelsey, 
Evolution 
of  the  Negro 
Laborer. 


Washington, 
Story  of  the 
Negro,  II, 
Ch.  II. 

Du  Boi8, 
Negro  Land- 
holder of 
Georgia,  665. 


Banks,  Land 
Tenure  in 
Georgia, 
JO-77. 


I 


! 


11  :    ■ 


m  !  : 


310      Indi4Strial  History  of  the  United  States 
Average  Area  in  Acres  of  Southern  Holdings 


Year 


All 


South 


Southern  ,  Atlantic 
States    \ 


i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


335-4 
214.2 

IS34 
139-7 
138.2 


352.8 
241. 1 
157-4 
1336 
108.4 


Sovth 
Central 


321.3 
194.4 
150.6 
144.0 
155-4 


The  reconstruction  of  agriculture  was  a  slow  and  diffi- 
cult process,  but  pluck  and  patience  finally  succeeded  in 
rendering  the  South  more  productive  under  free  than  under 
slave  labor.  Dead  lands  were  reclaimed  by  use  of  fer- 
tilizers; waste  lands  were  brought  under  cultivation; 
machinery  and  scientific  methods  were  brought  to  bear 
in  the  growing  of  cotton,  sugar,  and  rice.  Evidence  of  the 
losses  of  the  war  period  and  the  gains  of  the  subsequent 
decades  may  be  gathered  from  farm  statistics. 

Crop  Statistics 


Year 


Cotton 


Bales 

i860 5,740,000 

1870 3,000,000 

1880 5,750,000 

1890 7,450,000 

1900 9,500,000 


Sugar 


Rice 


Tons 
193,040 
45, 000 
112,000 
136,000 
248,000 


Lbs. 
187,107,000 

73.635.000 
110,131,000 
'28,591,000 
283,773-000 


Average  \'\i.ie  of  Machinery  and  Implements  per  Acre 


Year 


i80o 
1870 
18S0 
i8qo 
1900 


United 

States 

North 
Atlantic 

North 
Central 

South 
Atlantic 

South 
Central 

$.52 

Westi  •is 

S.fKJ 

$1.21 

$.67 

$.32 

%-ii 

.66 

1-43 

.89 

.22 

-30 

.48 

-76 

1.58 

1. 00 

•30 

•35 

.60 

-70 

1.86 

.98 

•36 

-37 

.64 

.90 

2.34 

1-15 

-51 

-49 

-5'' 

$•33 
48 
.do 
.64 


HALLING  KERni.IZER  ON    1,,  DKAU  LaM.S.  CAI.HuLN.   ALA.iA.> 


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THRKSHINV,   WlIKAT  WITH   TRACTION    KNC.INK,   Nor  III    DAKOTA 


-ill  jiii^ 
■h 


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I 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results 


311 


Development  of  Cotton  Manufactures.  —  The  South's 
advantages  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods  had  long 

been  realized.     There 
was  water  power  in 
abundance,    free    all 
the  year  round,   the 
raw  material  was  to 
be    had  direct   from 
the  cotton  gin,  with 
no      commissions 
or  transportation 
charges    added,    and 
labor  was  at  hand  in- 
telligent and   willing. 
The  long-dormant  en- 
ergies   of    the    poor 
whites    were  utilized 
at   last,  capital  was 
secured      from     the 
North    and    from 
abroad,    and    the 
South   set  upon  the 


Mass.  Labor 
Bulletin, 
No.  10. 


Young, 

American 

Cotton 

Industry, 

54-99. 


The  Fall  Llve 


te.xtile  mdustry  m  good  earnest.     All  along  the  "  fall  line 
cotton  mills  were  built  with  phenomenal  rapidity,  and  the 
mountain  people  were  gathered  into  factory  villages.     It 
was  cheap  labor,  for  the  standard  of  living  was  not  high 
and  fuel,  food,  and  shelter  cost  little.    Moreove. ,  there  was 
no  prejudice  against  the  employment  of  women  and  chil- 
dren and  no  demand  for  shorter  hours  or  prohibition  of 
night  work.    Little  could  be  accomplished  in  the  war 
decade,  but  between  1870  and  1880  great  strides  were 
made     South  Carolina  doubled  the  capacity  of  her  mills 
and  the  value  of  her  output,  while  North  Carolina  and 
Georgia  were  not  far  behind.     By  1880  sixteen  thousand 
pe(.ple  found  employment  in  the  Southern  cotton  mills, 
and  their  product  was  nearly  one  fourth  that  of  New  Eng- 
land.   It  became  apparent  that  the  white  laborers  had  prof- 
ited more  than  the  blacks  from  the  edict  of  emancipation 


U.  S.  Census, 
tqoo,  IX, 
54-57- 


! 


•'ai  «^'-- 


I  f 


Stubbs, 

Sugar, 

79-101. 

Houston, 
Cotton, 
1 13-128. 

Shelfer, 

Tobacco, 

129--44. 


312 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Southern  Cotton  Factories 


Year 


i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


Spindles 


EMPtovEES        Value  of  Prodk  t 


298,551 

327,871 

542,048 

1,554,000 

4,299,988 


10,152 

10,173 
16,741 

36,415 
97,559 


$8,460,337 
11,372,186 

16,356,598 
41,513,711 
95.002,059 


Other  latent  resources  were  developed  by  Northern 
capital  and  Northern  entrepreneurs.  The  coal  and  iron 
deposits  of  the  Appalachian  Range  were  exploited  with 
modern  machinery;  the  phosphate  beds  of  Florida  and 
South  Carolina  and  Tennessee  were  opened  up,  and  the 
preparation  of  fertilizers  became  an  important  industry ; 
the  sandy  levels  of  Florida  were  covered  with  fruit  orchards ; 
the  bayou  lands  of  Louisiana  and  Texas  were  drained  and 
irrigated  and  converted  into  rice  fields  more  profitable 
than  those  of  South  Carolina. 


CHAPTER  X 

CONTEMPORARY  PROBLEMS 

The  Protective  Policy 

Notwithstanding  reductions  in  excise  and  customs 
duties  made  in  the  decade  following  the  Civil  War,  the 
national  revenues  increased  from  year  to  year,  until  in 
1S83  the  Treasury  reported  a  surplus  of  $145,600,000. 
This  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the  growth  in  wealth 
and  population  and  in  the  consequent  demand  for  the 
commodities  subject  to  tax.  The  receipts  from  customs 
duties  on  sugar,  silks,  woolens,  and  iron  manufactures 
were  rapidly  augmenting,  as  also  from  the  excises  on 
liquors  and  manufactured  tobacco. 

The  surplus  revenue  could  not  be  applied  to  the  re- 
detription  of  the  outstanding  bills  of  credit  for  fear  of 
gi\ing  umbrage  to  the  Greenback  party,  nor  to  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  government  bonds  without  curtailing  the 
circulation  of  the  national  banks.  Financiers  recom- 
mended the  further  reduction  of  Federal  taxes,  and  this 
was  seriously  undertaken  in  1883.  The  more  obnoxious 
of  the  remaining  excise  taxes  were  repealed,  e.g.  those  on 
matches,  patent  medicines,  and  pe/fumeries,  savings-bank 
deposits  and  bank  checks,  and  the  charges  on  chewing 
and  smoking  tobacco  were  reduced  by  half.  This  measure 
relieved  these  several  industries  of  a  considerable  burden 
and  met  with  general  approval;  not  so  the  attempt  to 
reduce  the  customs  duties.  A  Tariff  Commission,  ap- 
poinfod  in  1882,  submitted  an  elaborate  report  recom- 
mending general  reductions  of  20  and  25  per  cent  on  raw 
materials  and   articles   of   necessary   consumption.     The 

3ii 


Dewey, 

Financial 

Hist,  of 

U.S., 

415-429- 

Stanwood, 

II.  Cii.  XV. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
230-250. 

Rept.  of  the 
Tariff  Com- 
mission, 
1882, 
1681-1710. 


|1 '"]  II 

^'  •      I   1 


''^'i  J 


314 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


M,  r 


Sherman,  II, 
849-854- 


Dewey, 
National 
Problems, 
Ch.  IV. 

Kept,  of 
Tariff  Com., 
1882,  339- 
344,431-432. 
S4g,  603-612, 
763-764,  838, 
872,887-889, 
ioS3-ios^, 

1533.  1 534. 
1686-1688, 
2035-2036, 
2313-2333. 


Rept.  Mass. 
Bureau  of 
Labor  Stat., 
1884. 


Noyes, 
Forty  Yciirs 
of  .\mer. 
Finance, 

Q2-I03. 


Republican  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives  re- 
fused to  inaugurate  action,  and  the  measure  was  finally 
introduced  in  the  Senate,  as  an  amendment  to  the  In- 
ternal Revenue  Bill  sent  up  from  the  House.     The  amend- 
ment was  only  accepted  by  the  latter  body  after  consider- 
able modification  in  the  interest  of  protection  had  been 
admitted.     The   duties   on   coarse   woolens   and   cottons 
were  reduced,  since  these  manufactures  were  not  menaced 
by  foreign  competition,  but  charges  on  the  finer  grades 
were  actually  raised.    Iron  and  steel  manufactures  were 
taxed  not  quite  so  heavUy  as  in  1875,  but  the  duty  on  pig 
iron   was   reduced   in   proportion.    The   argument   that 
American  laborers  must  be  protected  against  the  "  pauper 
labor"  of  Europe  by  high  import  duties  on  foreign  prod- 
ucts had  been  brought  before   the   Commission  by  em- 
ployers as  well  as  by  represent  stives  of  trade  unions. 
American  workmen  were  receivh.g  on  an    average   one 
and  one  half  times  the  English  wage,  twice  that  paid  in 
Belgium,  three  times  the  rate  customary  in  France,  Italy, 
Germany,  and  Spain.    The  counter  argument  that  Ameri- 
can prices  raised  the  cost  of  living  to  two  and  three  times 
the  European  level,  and  that  the  enhanced  profits  accru- 
ing from   these  prices  were  not  necessarily  applied  tc 
wages,  did  not  have  much  influence  with  this  Congress 
The  interest  of  the  agricultural  sections  was  steadily  kepi 
in  mind,  the  import  duties  on  beef,  pork,  lard,  cheese 
butter,  wheat,  corn,  and  oats  being  maintained.    Sinci 
these  commodities  were  not  imported  except  from  Nov; 
Scotia  and  Canada,  the  New  England  farmers  alone  realize( 
any  benefit  from  such  duties,  while  the  wool  growers  0 
the  Middle  West  were  outraged  by  a  repeal  of  the  ai 
valorem  duties  on  imported  wools. 

Crisis  of  1884.  —  The  financial  panic  of  1884  was  at 
tributed  to  this  verv  moderate  abatement  in  the  protoc 
tion  accorded  to  manufactures,  but  it  would  be  difficu 
to  prove  that  factory  or  mining  interests  were  seriousl 
affected.  The  crisis  originated  in  Wall  Street  in  ti 
failure  of  four  large  banking  firms.     The  collapse  of  tl 


CoHtempomry  Problems  3,3 

Second  National,  the  Marine,  and  the  Metropolitan  banks 
^Nitmn  one  disastrous  week  was  due  to  no  general  depres- 
sion, but  to  dishonest  manasement  and  unwarranted  specu- 
lation.    The  unusual  stringency  in  the  money  market  was 
occasioned  by  the  displacement  of  gold  by   the  newly 
coined  silver,  and  by  the  sinking  of  vast  sums  in  Western 
farms  and  railroads.     The  transcontinental  roads  had  not 
yet  attained  a  paying  basis,  and  the  interests  of  agricul- 
ture were  threatened  by  falling  prices.      Import  duties 
brought  no  benefit  to  the  farmers  of  the  interior,  since 
their  domestic   market   was   overstocked   with   produce. 
The  wheat  crop  of  18S4  was  the  largest  that  had  ever 
been  harvested,  and  the  price  fell  to  sixty-four  cents  a 
bushel,  half  that  obtained  three  years  before.     This  price 
did  not  cover  the  cost  of  production,  and  many  farmers 
were  rumed.     The  inability  of  the  agriculturists  to  mee 
heir  Ob  igations  to  Eastern  capitalists  and  to  purchase 
the  products  of  Eastern  mills  and  workshops,  e^xtended 
and  prolonged  the  industrial  depression,  and  the  glut  of 
the  market  became  general. 

The  McEniey  Act.  -When  the  Democrats  came  into 
control  of  the  national  government  (1884),  several  half- 
hearted attempts  at  tariff  revision  were  made  (..,.  Morri- 
son of  lUmois  urged  a  twenty  per  cent  horizontal  reduc- 
tion and  free  raw  materials) ;  but  the  party  as  a  whole  was 
no  comnutted  to  the  policy  of  revision.  The  issue  wa 
dtfimtely  formulated  by  President  Cleveland  in  his  annual 
message  of  December,  1887,  when  the  excess  revenue  had 
mounted  to  more  than  Sroo,ooo,ooo  a  year,  and  the  taxes 
must  evkiently  be  abated.     The  PresiLt  rc"ommVnded 

•tin;     r      "'''f  ^'  '■'^"^"^'  "«^  arbitrarily  and  by  a 
s^^u"pmg  horizontal  cut,  but  with  due  regard  to  the  busi 

Z^T^r'^f,  ^r^^^^^d  ind^striesthouldrot 
^uddenly  be  deprived  of  advantages  on  which  calculations 

rarif    ''  'T  ^r^-     '^^'  '^'''^^'^  "^  "^^^hanics  and 

operatives  must  be  kept  in  mind,  hence  tariff  revision 

hould  aim  to  reduce  the  cost  of  living  without  curta  ing 

the  opportumty  for  employment  or  forcing  any  reduction 


Sherman, 
II,  87g-88i. 

Finance 
Kept.,  1884, 
'S7-IS9- 


Wright, 
Industrial 
Depressions, 
65-90. 


U.  S.  Statisti- 
cal Abstract, 
1904.  376. 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue,  61-62. 


Dewey, 

National 
Problems, 
Ch.  XI. 

President's 

Message, 

Cong. 

Record, 

XIX,  Pt.  I, 

9-U. 


\m 


■n 


fi 


••5  :;i' 


-|l,|. 

r. 


h1 


5*- 


^1  i  I  ^ 


Si    • 


]'■      * 


i  fl 


Noyes, 
Forty  Years 
of  American 
F' nance, 
1?   -138. 


TaussiR, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  U.S., 
251-283. 


Blaine, 

Retiprocity 

Letter. 

51st  ConR., 
I  St  Sesiiion, 
Sen.  Ex. 
Doc.  158. 


316      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  wages.  The  interests  of  farmers  and  farm  laborers  were 
even  more  weighty,  since  nearly  half  the  total  population 
was  represented  in  this  class.  Unprotected  by  import 
duties,  the  prices  of  most  farm  products  were  conditioned 
on  the  foreign  market,  and  this  must  not  be  jeopardized 
by  discriminating  tariff  schedules. 

The  surplus  and  the  tariff  were  the  main  questions  at 
issue  in  the  campaign  of  1888.    The  result  of  that  election 
was  an  unprecedented  \ictory  for  the  RepubUcan  party. 
Accounts  may  be  balanced  as  effectually  by  increasing 
expenditure  as  by  reducing  revenue.    T'-e  former  expedient 
would  involve  the  party  in  no  embarrassing  antagonisms, 
while    it    afforded    opportunity    to    strengthen    political 
allegiance ;  hence  Congress  extended  the  pension  list  to 
the  point  where   the   annual   apprci -riation  on  this  ac- 
count would  speedily  exhaust  the  surplus.     The  excess 
revenues  thus  disposed  of,  the  question  of  tariff  revisior 
was  taken  up.    In  May,  1800,  the  Committee  on  Way; 
and  Means  (William  McKinley,  chairman)  reported  a  bil 
proposing  a  general  increase  of  duties.    The  measure  wa: 
adopted  in  House  and  Senate  by  a  strict  party  vote,  on!} 
three  Republicans,  representatives  of  the  farming  interest 
voting  against  the  bill.    Higher  duties  were  imposed  o\ 
the  tiner  grades  of  cottons  and  woolens,  on  iron  and  stcd 
glass  manufactures,  etc.,  but  the  rates  on  raw  materiiil 
were  not  reducc<l.     A  serious  effort  was  made  to  extend  th 
benefits  of  protection  to  farm  products,  the  war  duties  01 
wool  were  restored,   while  heavy  imposts  were  laid  o 
eggs,  potatoes,  beans,  barley,  wheat,  corn,  tobacco,  fla> 
and  hemp.     The  tobacco  growers  realized  some  advantau 
from  the  exclusion  of  the  high-grade  leaf  from  Cuba  an 
Sumatra,  but  the  grain  growers  were  unaffected,  since  n 
cereals  were  imported.     James  G.   Blaine  asserted,   an 
truly:    "There  is  not  a  secti.-n  or  line  in  the  entire  bi 
that  will  oi>en  the  market  for  another  bushel  of  wheat  < 
another  barrel  of  pork."     There  was,  on  the  other  han 
reason  to  fear  that  our  exclusive  ^iry  might  seri<>u> 
curtail  the  foreign  market  for  our  agricultural  produce. 


I      ! 


Contemporary  Problems  317 

In  the  hope  of  inducing  foreign  nations  to  abate  their 
retahatory  tariffs,  Blaine  urged  upon  Congress  and  finally 
secured  the  so-called  reciprocity  clause  of  the  McKinley 
Act.    The  President  of  the  United  States  was  empowered 
to  restore  former  import  duties  on  sugar,  molasses,  tea, 
coffee,  and  hides  in  case  of  a.  /  country  whose  import 
charges  on   our  produce   (agricultural   or  otherwise)   he 
might  deem  to  be  unreasonable  and  unjust     The  im 
mediate  result  of  this  threat  was  the  negotiation  of  trade 
agreements  with  Brazil,  San  Domingo,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico 
Guatemala,   Salvador,    British   Guiana,    Nicaragua,   and 
Honduras.    Of  European  nations,  Austria-Hungary  and 
the  German  Empire  alone  accepted  our  offer  of  reciprocal 
commercial  advantage. 

The  enactment  was  notable  for  the  appearance  of  cer- 
tain busmess  combinations  as  influential  factors  in  the 
determination  of  duties.     The  binding   twine  trust    for 
example,  requested  a  duty  of  two  and  a  half  cents  a  piund 
on  Its  product.    The  tax  was  protested  by  the  farmers  of 
Kansas  and  the  West,  who  were  using  great  quantities  of 
wine  for  binding  sheaves,  and  their  representatives  re- 
fused to  vote  for  the  bill  unless  binding  twine  was  placed 
on  the  free  list.    This  conflict  of  interest  was  compromised, 
and  the  duty  was  fixed  at  seven  tenths  of  a  cent  per  pound, 
ihc  Amencan  Sugar  Refining  Company  urged  that  a 
differential  of  profit  be  secured  their  industry  by  increas- 
ing the  duty  on  refined  sugar  or  by  the  repeal  of  the  tax 
on  their  raw  material.     The  former  device  was  protested 
by  consumers,  since  sugar  had  become  a  necessity,  even 
to  the  poor ;  the  latter  was  protested  by  the  cane  planters 
01  l..misiana  and  the  beet  farmers  of  the  Middle  West 
ihe  duty  on  refined  sugar  was  reduced  from  three  and  a 
half  cents  to  one  half  a  cent  a  pound,  while  raw  sugar  was 
admitted  free;    but  full  compensation  was  accorded  do"- 
mestic  producers  in  a  bounty  of  two  cents  a  pound  on  all 
suRars  grown  in  the  United  States.     The  only  loser  in  this 
t>arga,n  was  the  government.    Since  the  bounty  charge 
amounted  to  $0,000,000  per  year  and  the  remission  of  the 


Ford, 

Reciprocity 
under  the 
Tariff  Act  of 
1890. 


Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Reciprocity, 
Ch.  VI,  VII. 

Griffin,  List 
of  RfftTfnces 
on  Rt'ci- 


procity. 


Census,  iqoo, 
V'l,  452-460; 
'X.  54S-SSS- 


.5>'t 


i 


if 


rt 


it:  I 


J         ? 

1-, 

1     ;      ! 

y 

i 
1.    = 

Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


.Idrich, 
Rept. 
Wholesale 
Wages, 
Prices,  and 
Transporta- 
tion, I,  8-14 


Dewey, 

4S5-4S8. 


Sherman, 
II,  Ch.  LXV. 

Stan  wood, 
Il.Ch.  XVII 

LauRhlin 
and  Willis, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Dewey, 
National 
Problems, 
Ch.  XVII. 


duty  cut  down  the  annual  revenue  by  $55,000,000,  the 
concession  to  the  sugar  trust  cost  the  Treasury  dear. 
The  annual  surplus  was  speedily  converted  into  a  dehcit. 
The  McKinley  Act  proved  highly  unpopular,  for  prices 
and  cost  of  living  increased  with  little  compensating  ad- 
vance in  wages.  The  farmers  experienced  no  impro\e- 
ment  in  the  market  for  their  products.  Wheat  fell  from 
eighty-four  cents  a  bushel  in  1890  to  forty-nine  cents  in 
1804,  and  prices  of  corn,  oats,  rye,  and  barley  declined 
in  the  same  proportion.  The  woolen  manufacturers  com- 
plained that  the  protection  given  them  did  not  offset  tht 
enhanced  cost  of  their  raw  materials. 

The  WUson-Gorman  Act.  —  The  tariff  was  the  dominant 

issue  in  the  campaign  of  1892,  when  the  Democrats  wor 

the  election  and  Cleveland  was  returned  to  the  presidency 

He  immediately  intrusted  Wilson  of  West  Virginia  witl 

the  task  of  devising  a  tariff  schedule  that  should  emboti\ 

the  Democratic  doctrine  of  free  raw  materials  and  moder 

ate  ad  valorem  duties  on  finished  products.    The  Wilsoi 

Bill  placed  wool,  iron,  steel,  coal,  and  lumber,  togethe 

with  sugar,  on  the  free  list,  and  prop<»ed  a  proportional 

reduction  in  the  duties  on  the  corresponding  manufacture^ 

The  necessary  revenue  was  to  be  derived  from  duties  oi 

tobacco,  spirits,  playing  cards,  etc..  but  lest  these  taxt 

should  prove  insufficient,  a  tax  of  two  per  cent  on  mconu 

above  S4000  per  year  was  added  by  amendment.    Th 

revival  of  an  emergency  war  measure  was  opposed  in  tli 

moneyed  sections  of  the  country,  but  enthusiastically  suj 

ported  by  the  Populists  of  the  South  and  West.     PI 

Wilson  Bill  passed  the  House  with  no  further  amendmeni 

but  in  the  Senate,  where  the  Republicans  had  control, 

met  with  serious  resistance.     With  the  aid  of  Senat( 

Gorman,  amendments  were  adopted  imposing  duties  < 

low-grade  sugars,  on  wool,  coal,  iron,  and  other  raw  m 

tcrials,  together  with  compensating  rates  on  refined  sui,';i 

woolens,  and  a  lung  list  of  manufactured  articlc^^    ^^!^' 

the  mutilated  bill  was  returned  to  the  House,  that  b<^. 

refused  to  concur.    The  questions  in  dispute  were  referr 


Sugar  PLANTAxroN  in  Hawaian  Islands 
Japanese  laborers. 


V't 


f,  ('it 


A 


I. 


VI 


A 

;' 

M       Ik 

1     f 

r* 

1 

J 

: 

1. 1 

•*••  I 


f ' 

! 

i   ' 

I   I 


f      ' 
f      i 


I  ill 


I      i 


■H 


•i 


Contemporary  Problems  319 

to  a  conference  with  sUght  avail,  and  the  bill  was  in  danger 
of  going  by  default,  when  the  Democratic  leaders  of  fhe 
House  agreed  to  accept  the  Senate  amendments,  except 
the  wool  tax,  m  the  hope  of  later  enlarging  the  free  list  by 
separate  enactments.    Thus  the  Wilson-Gorman  Bill  be^ 
ri  7  '^"^^  disapproved  by  both  parties  and  meeting 
the  needs  of  no  mterest,  public  or  private.    The  range  of 
duties  was  reduced  from  the  McKinley  Act  average  of 
49v5  per  cent  to  an  average  rate  of  39.94  per  cent. 
J^L^y^  ^*=*--The  Republicans  won  the  election 
of  1896  on  the  currency  issue,  but  President  McKinley 
regarded    he  victory  as  an  indorsement  of  his  protect  ve 

£'t^ff  M?  7  °^  ^"^"^  ""^  commissioned  to  prepare 
the  tanff  bill  that  was  submitted  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives m  an  extra  session  convened  immediately  after 
the   mauguration.    The    bill    was    rushed    through    the 

^V  ^l^^'"^  ^'■^P^^^  ^^  '^^  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  but  m  the  Senate,  where  parties  were  more 
equally  divided,  it  met  with  stubborn  resistance.     The 

a^rtheSrT'i'K'  '"  ^'^"'^  '^^  '"^^^"^^  -^  referred 
after  the  initial  debate,  was  made  up  of  four  Republicans 

four  Democrats,  and  one  Populist,  and  thus  the  balance 

of  power  rested  with  the  latter.  Senator  Jones  of  Nevada 

Ht  succeeded  in  incorporating  in  the  reported  bill  a  series 

amendments  in  the  interest  of  the  farmers,  rancher^ 

-nd  lumbermen  of  the  Far  West.    A  duty  of  ^ne  cent  a 

JXHuid  on  citrous  fruits  was  introduced  in'response   oh: 

^     ands  of  the  orange  growers  of  California,  one  and  one 

m  f       .'"  "^  '*'"  P'"^"^'  ^^^"^  ^  protective    duty 

an    r  ;T'  ''"'  '^"^'"^^  •■"  '^'  '"t^r^st  of  the  sheep 

,tth    ''^""^r'^''^"^  ^^^^"-    The  duty  on  lumbe^ 

L'     M    "?"^  ^'''\  '"''-''^  '^  P^^^^^t  our  lumber  mer- 

n  1   nf    H    ""'"P;^'''""  ^'^^  Canada.     The  bill,  when 

■W  ^     W  '  T;^'^  "^'T''''  ^"^'^^  ^"  --"T  business 
ZT  ^''■"^"""'d  P'-'^^'t  by  the.:,  at  rate,  higher  than 

at '  r/.^"P''^  '"  ""^^  P^^^'""^  l^"ff-    The  averag^ 
fange  of  duties  was  57  per  cent.  ^ 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Act 
of  i8g7. 

Laughlin 
and  VVilUs, 
Ch.  IX. 


Tariff 
Hearings, 

i8g7. 


■^i 


^ii 


3% 


Is;-  f 
Iff  iv 


m 


il-i; 


"'■  il 


}      '    I 


l| 


Mi  - 


1  '     '! 


Moody, 
Truth  about 
the  Trusts, 
66. 


Patten, 
Economic 
Basis  of 
Protection. 


L'S 


Bulletins, 
Bureau  of 
Labor, 
Nos.  51,  J3 


320      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Dingley  Tariff  met  with  serious  criticism  on  the 

ground  that  it  served  to  promote  industrial  combmations. 

It  was  asserted  that  the  representatives  of  various  trusts 

brought  the  influence  of  vast  wealth  to  bear  upon  the 

congressional  deUberations.    The  tin  plate  coinbmation, 

for  example,  secured  a  renewal  of  the  rates  of  the  McKinley 

Act,  although  the  tin  mines  in  whose  mterest  the  duties 

weri  originally  proposed  had  failed  to  matenahze^    Th 

Lar  trust  extorted  a  differenrial  of  three  fourths  of  a 

cent  a  pound,  two  and  one  half  times  that  allowed  unde. 

the  Wilson  Tariff.    Even  the  protection  intended  to  ad 

vantage  the  farmers  and  other  raw  material  producer. 

Lrued    to    the    centralized   industries.    The    enhancec 

value  of  American  hides  enriched  the  beef  packers   sine. 

tanning  had  become  a  by-industry  of  the  slaughterhouse 

while  the  duty  on  lumber  insured  monopoly  of  the  domestic 

market    to  great   timber  companies    and  hastened  th 

ruinous  exploitation  of  our  forest  lands.     The  conflict  of  1.1 

terest  between  manufacturer  and  producer  of  raw  materu 

induced    further    criticism.    The    woolen  manuac  ure, 

protested  the  high  duties  on  wool,  the  shoe  manufacture, 

opposed  the  tax  on  1  Hes,  the  paper  manufacturers  d. 

nianded    free    bleaching    powder;     but    these   intere. 

were  usually  able  to  make  good  the  enhanced  cost  . 

raw  materials  by  advancing  the  selling  price  of  their  p.o( 

ucts     Certain  great  business  combinations,  such  a;,    1 

United  States  Steel  Corporation,  realized  enormous  proti 

from  the  protected  market.     The  output  of  iron  and  stc 

developed  to  phenomenal  proportions  under  the  Dinpl^ 

Tariff     Hi^h  prices  on  domesdc  sales  enabled  our  man 

facturers  to  export   agricultural   implements,   structui 

iron,  steel  rails,  etc.,  to  foreign  markets,  and  there 

underbid  their  English  and  German  competitors.     But 

prosperity  of   the  manufacturer   was  promoted   at  t 

expense  of  the  consumer.     The  prices  of  all  the  essent. 

that  enter  into  the  cost  of  living -food,  clothing,  n 

building  materials,  house  furnishings,  etc.  -  have  n. 

steadUy  since  1897.    The  total  rise  in  prices  amounteo 


Contanpomry  Problems  321 

1908,  io  an  addition  of  forty-three  per  cent  to  the  prices 
prevaihng  in  1896.  Hamilton's  assumption  that  manufac 
tures  once  established,  domestic  competition  would  reduce 
prices  to  the  cost  of  production  held  good  in  an  epoch 
when  mdustnal  monopolies  were  unknown;  but  the 
busmess  combmations  of  to-day,  having  established  control 
of  the  domestic  market,  fix  prices  without  regard  to  cost 

revTv.VT''""'  "'  'f^^  ^^"^'^>'  Tariff  coindded  wi  h  a 
2  ^  A  ^f  P'"'^  '"^  ^^^^^  ^"  ^h^  l^^^ding  Indus  ries 
shared.     A  failure  of  the  foreign  wheat  crops  in  x  806  and 

Mhenntf  '  ''"'"'  '"  ^"^^"'^^^  ^^'^hat  b  ought 
up  the  pnce  from  53  cents  a  bushel  in  August,  1806  to  Sr 
a  bushel  in  August,  1897.    A  phenomenal  crop  in  the  latte 
year  brought  $500,000,000  into  the  hands  of  the  producers 
This  mean     the   turning  of   the   tide.     The  firmers  of 

atThe'^^h"^"^  1"'^  '^^^"  ^«  ^-y  «ff  their  mortgages 
and  the  enhanced  purchasing  power  of  the  agricuUural 
sections  was  felt  in  renewed  demand  for  a  great  Wvo 

oTcullr'  f^\    ^""^  ^'^^^""-  t^^t  had  shut  down 
or  curtailed  output  during  the  period  of  depression  beJIn 
to  run  on  full  time,  workshops  and  rolling  mils  were   'e 
opened    operatives    and   artisans   found    re^dy   empC 

eached  $1,032,007,600  in  1897,  and  the  volum.  ste!d  fv 

ncrcased  from  year  to  year.     Of  the  total  exports  in  1^8 

^4.5  per  cent  were  foodstuffs,  46.86  per  cent  raw  materTat 

of  n^aniffacture  and  .777  per  cent  manufactured  good  ' 

atti  n  aTI-^"^'^  '''^'  ^"  f"^^^  t-^'^--  y-'^rs  and  thereby 

2«ds  of  producti^;  i^Zl  :L:^:1nd^r  k^ 
"idustnes  that  some  revision  of  the  schedules  seemed  in- 


iit 


Hi  .i 


i  \ 


^ 
i 


M 


.iii 


I-  .1 ,. 


i 


;  i  v. , 


t       1 


i« 


ir; 


!  I    i 

I    i 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Willis, 
Tariff  of 
iQog. 


evitable     Improvements  in  machinery  and  in  workshop 

:rgatzation  had  brought  the  cost  of  -^---'-^^^12:^^1 
Furooean  level,  but  the  cost  of  certam  raw  materials  such 
IfwooT  Wdes/and  fuel  was  rising,  the  market  for  many 
as  \\ooi,  niucs,  a  controlled  by  combmations 

of  the  necessaries  of  hte  %\as  controucu     y 

fV,^  r.rorl.i'-ers    while  the  consumers,  the  bulk  ol 
r^^pSrU^hXo™  restless  under  the  -  .n^ea. 

i„g  Lrden  ^^-^^^  ^^STas  eLtS  aT  . 
protest  against  the  Uingley  larm  wa  ^. , ,,  «'csi 
inference  of  representative  rnenfr^^^^^^^^^^  "^^^X^ 

jrDifgirr-r/inducV^^^^^^^ 
tie  part'o  Germany,  France,  and  Canada,  that  threaten, 
the  serious  curtailment  of  the  markets  on  winch  th 
tternTroducers  depended  for  the  f^^^^^^^^  ^ 
nlus  crops  Revolt  against  the  established  order  ^^  J 
^     -.^Ttn  Coneress  by  representatives  from  Indian; 

hdr  words  wer'e  eagerly  affirmed  by  the  non-protectc 
cl.  ses  the  country  over.    In  the  presidential  campaign 
to     botl  the  Republican  and  Democratic  party  pla 
form  declared  for  reshaping  of  the  Dingley  schedul  - 

The  Payne-Aldrich  Act.  -The  party  m  PO^er  f^vo. 
a  "  revision  of  the  tariff  by  a  special  session  of  Congrc 
immediately  following  the  inauguration  of  the  next  pr 
dent,"  and  asserted  that  "  the  true  pnnciple  of  protect 
is  best  maintained  by  the  imposition  o^/^f  ^<^uties  ^^^^^^ 
equal  the  difference  between  the  cost  of  production 
home  and  abroad,  together  with  a  -aso-ble  pro  U^^ 
American  industries."    The  Democratic  platform  fa  c 
fmmediPte  revision  of  the  tariff  by  the  reduction  of 
port   duties,    notably  on  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  I 
posed  that  "  articles  enteri^ng  into  competition  .thtn 
Controlled  products  should  be  P^^^^ ^hHld  tL    Re  i 
The  campaign  was  an  exciting  one.     The  o^-t^"^^  ^^^^ 
lican  stronghold,  the  Eastern  ^"^"^t^^.^^^j^!,'^ 
vania.  New  York.  Massachusetts,  and  R^^^^e  island 
re  "nforced  by  new  manufacturing  centers  in  Illinois,  \ 


)rkshop 

to  the 
lis  such 
r  many 
[nations 
bulk  of 
increas- 
t  formal 
ed  at  a 
le  West 
ted  that 
ition  on 
reatened 
lich    the 
heir  sur- 
•der   was 
Indiana, 
sota,  and 
protected 
npaign  of 
irty  plat- 
lules. 
r  favored 

Congress 
lext  presi- 
protection 
:ies  as  will 
luction  at 
;  profit  to 
m  favored 
on  of  im- 
;,  and  pro- 
with  trust- 
■  free  list." 
me  Repub- 
s,  Pennsyl- 
Island,  \vas 
linois,  Wis- 


Wayside  Force 


Coke  Ovens  of  Birmingham,  Alabama 


r  j 


5?  J 


i 


if 


MP  I 


r  ] 

I  8    (!■ 


-3    r    r 


Contemporary  Problems 


323 


consul,  and  Michigan,  whose  representaUves  determined 
to  "  stand  pat  "  for  the  old  regime.  The  citizens  of  the 
mountain  states,  Washington,  Wyoming,  Idaho,  Utah,  and 
Montana,  rallied  to  the  support  of  duties  on  lumber 
hides  wool,  copper,  and  beet  sugar.  Even  Missouri  sent 
Republican  representatives  to  secure  protection  for  her 
zinc  mines  California  was  opposed  to  duties  on  lumber 
and  manufactured  goods,  but  was  eager  to  obtain  addi- 
tional protection  for  her  fruits  and  wines.  The  stanch 
Democracy  of  the  "  Solid  South  "  was  breaking  down 
under  the  influence  of  her  infant  industries,  the  cotton 
mU  s,  iron  manufactures,  phosphate  mines,  and  petroleum 
wells  that  clamored  for  protection.  The  interest  of  the 
consumers,  though  the  majority  of  the  popvi  ^on  in  every 
^  section,  were  not  so  well  organized  anu  erefore  less 
iniiuential. 

The  overwhelming  Republican  victory  of  November 
1908,  assured  revision  on  conservatix-e  lines.     The  House 
of  Representatives  had  rejected  a  proposition  for  a  tariff 
commission  that  should  make  an  impartial  study  of  the 
comparative  cost  of  production  at  home  and  abroad  and 
so  indicate  the  just  measure  of  reduction  in  the  several 
schedules,  but  had  empowered  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  to  collect  information  in  a  series  of  tariff 
hearings.     During  the  winter  public  hearings  were  held  Tariff  Hear- 
at  Washington  and  a  mass  of  testimony  was  accumulated    i"«^- 
turnished  for  the  most  part  by  manufacturers  and  other   '^«-''^- 
interested  parties.    The  extra  session  convened  on  March 
15-  1900.  lasted  until  August,  and  the  tariff  was  the  sole 

mtr'  7t"  '^'^'^'-  '^^"  ^"'  ^^  ^^P^rted  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means  (Sereno  Payne  of  New  York 
chairman)  proposed  a  thoroughgoing  revision,  involving 
a  considerable  reduction  of  the  duties  on  manufactures 
and  on  free  raw  matenals,  i.e.  coal,  iron  ore,  and  hides.  The 
at  empt  to  put  lumber  and  petroleum  on  the  free  li.t  had 
la.  ed  because  of  the  persistent  opposition  of  the  "  stand- 
nfn?'  ,  ^"?.^^"°"s  '•ates  had  been  raised  above  the 
iJingley  level  m  the  interest  of  influential  manufacturers 


"t  i 


\kn 


i 


I 


Willis, 
Tariff  of 
igog. 


% 


!  4  :  ■ 

is 


'  I 


324 


Industrial  Histoty  of  the  United  States 


The  "insurgent"  Republicans  from  the  Middle  West 
strove  to  amend  the  bill  in  the  consumer's  interest,  and 
did  succeed  in  removing  duties  on  the  products  of  petro- 
leum, but  the  bill  as  it  passed  the  House  was  distmctly  a 
protective  measure.  Meantime  Senator  Aldrich,  chair- 
man of  the  Finance  Committee,  had  been  preparmg  a 
bill  more  in  keeping  with  Republican  traditions,  and  thh 
was  introduced  in  the  Senate  as  a  substitute  for  the  Hous« 
bill.  The  Dingley  rates  on  petroleum  products,  twenty 
five  cents  per  ton  on  iron  ore,  sixty  cents  per  ton  on  coal 
$1.50  per  thousand  feet  on  lumber,  together  with  manj 
well-concealed  advances  on  diverse  manufactures,  renderec 
the  Aldrich  bill  as  it  passed  the  Senate,  a  more  eflectivcl; 
protective  measure  than  the  Dingley  Act  itself. 

The  House  rejected  the  Senate  bill  and  the  Senate  re 

iected  that  sent  up  from  the  House,  so  that  both  bill 

with  the  mass  of  amendments  attached  were  referred  to 

Joint  Conference.     Here  there  was  a  veritable  tug  of  wa 

(July  12-29),  but  when,  exhausted  by  the  fatigues  of 

midsummer  session,  the  conferees  were  about    to    agrc 

upon  a  measure  that  embodied  some  of  the  worst  featun 

of  the  rival  bills.  President  Taft  intervened.     He  int 

mated  his  determination  to  sign  no  measure  that  did  m 

provide  for  the  consumer's  interests,  and  urged  the  restor; 

tion  of  coal,  hides,  and  lumber  to  the  free  list.     Unci 

executive  pressure   the   most   obnoxious   schedules   wc 

hastily  revised  within  the  limits  defined  by  the  origin 

bills  and  the  numerous  amendments  thereto ;  the  duty  c 

iron  was  reduced  to  fifteen  cents  per  ton,  that  on  coal 

forty-five  cent.,  the  lumber  duty  to  $1.25  per  thousar 

feet,  while  hides  were  admitted  free.     The  Payne-Aldm 

Bill'  passed  the  House  on  July  31  and    the    Senate  . 

August  5,  and  was  signed  by  the  President  on  the  sar 

day.     In  the  official  statement  of  his  reasons  for  signi: 

the  bill,  Mr.  Taft  asserted  that  it  represented  a  substant 

revision  downward,  that  with  the  exception  of  the  Jul 

on  "  whiskey,  liquors  and  wines,  silks  and  high  class  C(Ht 

goods,  all  of  which  may  be  treated  as  luxuries  and  proi 


Contemporary  Problems 


32s 


subjects  of  a  revenue  tariff,"  there  were  few  increases  in 
rates.  The  admission  of  tobacco  and  of  three  hundred 
thousand  tons  per  annum  of  sugar  from  the  Philippine 
Islands  duty  free,  was  an  act  of  justice  in  which  he  took 
much  pride.  The  woolen  schedule  where  the  Dingley 
rates  were  maintained,  although  confessedly  far  above  the 
rates  necessary  to  protect  the  manufacturer  against  for- 
eign competition,  the  President  regarded  as  the  "one 
important  defect  in  the  bill." 

Comparisons  of  the  rates  imposed  in  the  Payne-Aldrich  Shaw.  Payne 
Act  with  the  Dingley  average,  made  by  the  Finance  Com-  Aidrkh 
mittee  of  the  Senate,  by  the  customs  house  experts,  and  '^""^• 
by  the  ,,      ic  press,  failed  to  demonstrate  any  substantial 
change.      iie  critics  of  the  measure  asserted  that  there  had 
been  an  average  auxance  of  two  per  cent  ad  %alorem  on 
goods  imported;    its  defendants  claimed  a  reduction  of 
from  one  and  a  half  to  two  i)er  cent.     The  difference  in 
cost  of  production  at  home  and  abroad,  so  much  talked 
of  during  the  campaign,  was  not  the  determining  issue  in 
congressional  debate,  since  the  effort  to  secure  adequate 
data  for  the  estimation  of  such  difference  had  been  de- 
feated by  the  leaders  of   the  party  in   power.     Senator 
Beveridge  s  bill  for  a  preliminary  tariff  commission  had 
been   voted  down  although    indorsed    by    the   National 
Manufacturers  Association,  and  the  pro^•isio^  of  the  new 
law  for  a  Tariff  Board  was  shorn  of    all  significance  by 
ehmmatmg    the  function  of  investigation.     The  e%  idencc 
sul)mitted  by  the  German  government  as  to  costs  of  pro- 
duction   m    that   country   was   not   published   until   the 
Payne-Aldrich  Bill  had  reached  the  final  stages. 

The  mysteries  of  tariff-making  were  never  better  exem- 
plitied  than  in  this  most  recent  attempt  to  meet  all  the 
demands  of  a  widely  diversified  constituency,  to  reconcile 
the  conflicting  interests  of  manr.factmer  and  consumer  to 
adjust  the  balance  between  the  producers  of  raw  material 
and  finished  product.  A  conspicuous  example  was  ihe 
battle  waged  over  Schedule  M,  Paper  and  Woodpulp.  In 
si'ite  of  a  vigorous  campaign  on  the  part   of  newspaners 


Tai  ,ig, 
Tar..f  of 
I  yog. 


it 
I 


-A'  %% 


'  II 


i:i  i   1 1- 


!  ■     I 


'i!»: 


■I 

li 

■! 


H  1      H 


Willis, 
Tariff, 
igog. 


326      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

and  publishers  against  the  excessive  import  duties  on 
paper,  the  powerful  business  combinations  in  control  of 
this  industry  were  able  to  resist  thoroughgoing  revision. 
Early  in  1908  the  House  of  Representatives  had  appomted 
a  select  committee  to  investigate  the  paper  manufacture 
and  consider  modilications  in  the  duties.     They  made  ;i 
careful  and  impartial  inquiry  and  brought  in  a  report  to 
the  eflfect   that   the   cost   of  production   was   somewhat 
greater  in  this  country  than  abroad,  together  with  tlic 
recommendation  that  wood  pulp  be  transferred  tt)  the 
free  list  and  that  the  duty  on  print  paper  be  reduced  from 
$6  to  $2  per  ton.     The  recommendations  of  the  committee 
were  adopted  by  the  House,  but  in  the  Senate  the  dut\ 
on  print  paper  was  raised  to  $4  per  ton.     The  Joint  Con- 
ference agreed  upon  $.5.75,  and  stipulated  that  the  dutie- 
on  wood  pulp  were  to  be  remitted  only  in  case  Canadc 
should  remove  her  export  duties  on  the  same.     The  Inter 
national   Paper  Trust  owns  4,500.00°   acres   of   sprue. 
timber  on  both  sides  the  boundary    and  therefore  prefer; 
to  manufacture  its  own  pulp.    There  is  no  import  duty  ot 
spruce  timber. 

The  reciprocity  policy  that  had'  been  so  successful  ; 

feature  of  the  McKinley  and  Dinglcy  acts  was  abandoned 

In  place  of  the  proposal  to  lower  customs  duties  in  re?p>  i 

to  countries  that  offered  reciprocal  favors,  the   Paym 

Aldrich  Tariff  provided  that  an  increment  of  twenty-tiv 

per  cent  ad  valorem  should  be  added  to  the  whole  ran-j 

of  duties  on  imports  from  countries  that  fail  to  accord  u 

the  most  favored  nation  treatment.     Under  the  Dingle 

Act  a  reduction  of  twenty  per  cent  on  specific  comnioi 

ities  had  been  made  in  a   scries  of  treaties  with  goveri 

ments  that  agreed  to  accord  us  corresponding  favors;  In 

now   a    threat  was  substituted    for    an    invitation     tl 

termination  of   the   reciprocity  treaties  was  announeet 

and  only  by  the  most  skillful  diplomacy  was  taritT  w; 

with  France  and  Germany  averted.     Moreover,  our  true 

with  Canada,  amounting  to  $;42,ooo,ooo  per  annum,  w: 

in  jeopardy. 


I   '■ 


Contemporaiy  Problems 


127 


The  revenue-producing  capacity  of  the  new  tariflF  was 
in  doubt  from  the  first.     Commercial  restrictions  mean 
declining  imports  and  diminishing  customs  receipts.     Cer- 
tain sumptuary  taxes  were  imposed  on  articles  of  luxury, 
such  as  automobiles  and  foreign-built  yachts,  on  wines 
and  brandies,   and  on  injurious  drugs,  such  as  opmm, 
morphia,  and  cocaine ;    but  even  so  a  deficit  was  feared.' 
Provision  for  an  inheritance  tax  was  introduced  by  the 
House   Committee  on   Ways  and  Means,   but   this  was 
abandoned  on  the  ground  that  such  taxes  were  already 
levied  in  many  states,  and  an  income  tax  amendment 
was  carried  in  the  Senate  by  insurgent  and  Democratic 
votes.     In  place  of  this  unpalatable  expedient,  the  Ad- 
ministration suggested  a  tax  of  two  per  cent  (later  reduced  Conant  Cor- 
tT  one  per  cent)  on  the  net  revenues  of  all  business  cor-  PorationTax. 
porations    whose    income    exceeded    $5000    per    annum 
The  constitutionalitj'  of  this  federal  tax  on  corporations 
chartered  by  the  states  is  yet  to  be  tested. 

Expansion  of  Commerce:   Decline  of  Shipping 

The  high  tariff  policy,  maintained  with  slight  modifica- 
tion for  fifty  years,  has  had  the  effect  of  checking  the  im- 
portation of  foreign  goods.  Imports  have  increased,  in- 
(1ml,  but  not  more  rapidly  than  population,  while  the 
ratio  of  exports  to  population  has  steadily  risen. 


Vf.ar 


iXfio 
18-0 
1880 

18110 

lijOO 


lMIH)RrS  PEK 

Capita 

Exports  r 
Capita 

$11. .'I 

$io.<io 

ri.;il 

IC  K) 

HS^ 

10.4  < 

I  -'.f.O 

1350 

I. .14 

l-.gO 

■3.57          1 

J 1 .04 

..!»h  the  exceptions  of  1875,  18.SS  and  iS8g,  urn!  iSq^, 
ytars  of  industrial  dejiression,  the  balance  of  trade  has 


-J  11 


K 


a   i 


s:i 


i  ii 


ll 


.IH 


Ilii 


\    . 


m 

m 


M 


Ih 


I     i 

i'   i! 


I,  f   • 


Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Ch.X. 


Rept.  of  the 
Industrial 
Commission, 
VI.     Pt.  Ill, 
VIII. 


North, 
Tariff  and 
Export 
Trade. 


Rept.  Indust 
Com.,  VI, 
Pt.  I,  II. 


Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VI,  Pt.  I,  II 


328      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

been  in  our  favor  for  a  generation.  The  total  excess  of 
exports  over  imports  for  thirty  years  past  exceeds  eight 
and  a  quarter  billion  dollars. 

For  every  year  following  on  1897  the  value  of  our  ex- 
ports has  exceeded  $1,000,000,000.     This  extraordinary 
showing  is  due  in  part  to  the  increasing  foreign  demand 
for  the  raw  materials  supplied  by  American  farms,  mines, 
and  forests.     The  export  tables  of  1908  report  $437,800,000 
ir  raw  cotton,  $100,000,000  in  pig  copper,  $34,000,000  i  ^ 
leaf  tobacco,  and  $21,000,000  in  naval  stores.     During     e 
last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  we  achieved  a 
notable  commercial  triumph  in  the  conquest  of  foreign 
markets  for  our  manufactured  commodities.     The  surplus 
products  of  our  cotton  mills,  shoe  factories,  iron  and  steel 
works,  etc.,  have  sought  and  secDied  purchasers  abroad. 
Cotton  goods  to  the  value  of  $22,000,000  are  sent  to  the 
Orient,  where  they  sell  in  competition  with  English  and 
German    goods.     Sewing    machines    to    the    amount    of 
$7,ooo,oco  and  agricultural  implements  worth  $24,000,000 
are  annually  sent  to  foreign  markets,  and  the  total  export 
of  iron  manufactures  in  1908  amounted  to  $184,000,000. 
Farm  products  are  now  being  exported,  not  only  in  the 
rough,  as  grain,  cattle,  etc.,  but  as  prepared  foods,  which 
represent  greater  value  in  proportion  to  bulk.     The  mills 
of  Minnesota  grind  not  for  domestic  markets  only,  but 
for  European  as  well.     The  Pacific  ports  —  San  Francisco, 
Portland,  Seattle,  anu  Tacoma  —  ship  the  harvests  of  iht 
wheat  ranches  o'  California  and  the  Columbia  River  l)a>iii 
tu  Hawaii,  Japan,  China,  and  India.     One  third  of  then 
shipments  is  sent  in  the  form  of  flour,  that  wheat  nia> 
the  more  easily  supplant  rice  in  the  Oriental  diet.     Ke 
frigerator  cars  and  refrigerator  steamers  enable  the  pack 
ing  houses  of  Chicago  and  Omaha  to  send  dressed  meau 
to  my  part  of  the  world.     The  exports  of  nrcjjared  meal 
in  i<)oS  were  six  times  the  value  of  the  live  animals  shii^iKH 
abroad.     xModcrn  trans] lortation  facilities  bring  the  Ameri 
tan  farmer,  whether  on  the  cott>n  land-:^  of  the  "  b!,.i! 
belt,"  the  cattle  ranches  of  the  plains,  the  orange  gnue 


Contemporary  Problems 


329 


EXPORTS  ANO  IMPORTS 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

AND   TONN»0E   OF 

ONITED  STATES  VESSELS 

REGISTERED   FOR  FOREIGN  TRADE 
1360  -  1910. 


vaiue  of  imports 

tano  exports 

in  dollars 

1.500,000.000 


1, 450,000.000 
1,400.000.000 
1,350.000,000 
1,300,000,000 
1,2!\000  000 
1,200,000,000 
1,150,000,000 
1,100,000,000 

i,a!ip,ooo,ooo 

1,000,000,000 
950,000,000 
900,000,000 

cso,ooo,ooa 

800,000,000 
750,000,000 

roo.ooo.ooo 

050,000,000 
600,000,000 
550,000,000 

500.000,000 

450,000,000 
400,000,000 
350,000,000 
300,000,000 

550,000,000 
200.000,000 

150,000,000 
100,000,000 
50,000,000 


»  -  *  ■ 


H 


•  \ 


\  :l 


1! 


•  Mi 
■I' 

I) 


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t 


Ml 


U  ! 


IP  Mi 


1 1 


III 


l( 


S  !'• 


330 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Ch.  Ill,  XI. 


Semple, 
Ch.  XVIII. 


Stat. 

Abstract  of 
U.  S.,  igoQ, 
358.  .';S7-562 


Marvin, 
Ch.  XVI. 


of  California,  or  the  vegetable  gardens  of  Texas,  within 
reach  of  a  profitable  market.  Apples  are  sent  from  Hood 
River,  Oregon,  to  the  epicures  of  Paris,  and  pineapples 
from  Hawaii  reach  the  fruiterers  of  New  York  City. 

The  rapidly  increasing  proportions  of  our  export  trade 
necessitate  the  seeking  out  of  new  purchasers.    The  in- 
dustrial justification  for  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  the  an- 
nexation of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  and  of  Porto  Rico,  the 
retention  of  the  Philippines,  and  the  maintenance  of  reci- 
procity relations  with  Cuba  is  the  advantage  of  securing' 
commercial  control  of  these  complementary  markets.     To 
the  mining  camps  of  Alaska  we  senci  ^jroN-isions  m  e.x- 
change  for  gold;  to  the  tropic  islands  .vc  send  foodstulT>. 
textiles,  and  machinery  in  exchange  for  raw  sugar,  fruits 
and  hemp.     Our  exports  to  Cuba  come  to  more  thiui 
$42,000,000  annually,  Hawaii  and  Alaska  take  from  u^ 
more  than  $18,000,000  each,  and  Porto  Rico  $23,000,000 
while  our  exports  to  the  PhiUppine  Islands  amount  t( 
'  $5,000,000   a  year,  not  more  than  half  their  total  sale: 
to  the  United  States. 

This  period  of  extraordinary  commercial  expansion  ha: 
witnessed  an  unparalleled  falling  off' in  our  ocean  marme 


Stat. 

.\h9tract  of 
U.  S.,  1008, 
284,  296-298. 


Year 


i8f)o 
1870 
1880 
1890 
i(;oo 
1908 


i,44S.84'i 

i,3r4,402 

028,0'u 

Si(),7i)5 

930,413 


TONNAC.E 

PER  CAi'ir-. 


Proportion  op 

FOREIC.N   COMMF.R(  r 
rARRlEO  ON   IN 

.\merran  Vessel-; 


•075 
•037 
.0.0 
.014 
.010 


Per  t'ont 
00.5 

174 

TJ.C) 
<)i 


IT  s  Censu.     The  rcverse.,  of  the  Civil  War  have  never  been  ma.le  goo, 
/o„„,X,  During  the  generation  tollowing,  the  tonnage  rcgi>lcr< 

209-239.         j^^  ^j^^  {^j^^.ig^  ^rade  decreased  fifty  per  cent.     The  lowc 


■I'lVi    I 


I' .    \ 


f  ■  \ 


|-     '        I 


Pine  Aitik  Plantahon  in  Hawaiian  Islan 


DS 


I.;' 


I      i 


Contemporary  Problcvis 


331 


ebb  was  reached  in  1898,  the  year  of  the  Spanish  War, 
when  our  total  tonnage  of  steam  and  sailing  vessels  com- 
bined was  but  726,213.  Now,  at  the  opening  of  the 
twentieth  century,  nine  tenths  of  our  exports  and  imports 
are  consigned  to  ships  that  float  a  foreign  flag. 

This  decay  in  our  ocean  marine  Is  the  more  striking 
because  the  tonange  employed  in  the  coastwise  trade  has 
doubled,  and  that  on  the  Great  Lakes  has  trebled  during 
the  same  period.     Commercial  ventures  in  these  waters 
are  protected   by  the  exclusion  of  foreign   competitors. 
The  immense  shipments  of  iron  ore,  lumber,  and  wheat 
from  Duluth,  Chicago,  and  Milwaukee  to  Buffalo  and 
other  Lake  Erie  ports,  call  into  requisition  great  freight 
steamers  of  speed,  strength,  and  hold  capacity  not  e.xcelled 
m   seagomg   vessels.     The    extension    of    our   coastwise 
regulations   to   Alaska,    the   Hawaiian   Islands,   and   the 
Phihppines  has  given  the  growing  traffic  from  our  Pacific 
ports  largely  into  the  hands  of  American  vessels,  and  the 
tonnage  registered  for  the  Pacific  trade  has  increased  by 
120  per  cent  since   1897.     The  total  tonnage  now  em- 
ployed 11.  the  coastwise  trade  and  in  the  service  of   the 
Great  I  akes  and  western  rivers  is  6,500,000,  eight  times 
the  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade. 

The  Subsidy  PoUcy.  —  Legislation  in  behalf  of  our  sea- 
going marine  has  been  broached  in  Congress  several  times 
in  the  past  twenty  years.  Differential  tonnage  duties  and 
preferential  tariffs,  after  the  precedent  of  the  first  decades 
of  our  national  history,  are  incompatible  with  the 
commercial  treaties  now  in  force,  and  the  subsidy  policy 
practiced  by  our  principal  European  competitors,  has 
been  adopted  as  the  best  means  of  strenj-hening  our 
merchant  service.  Senator  Frye  of  Maine  brought  for- 
ward two  bills  in  1891,  the  first  proposing  to  subsidize 
mail  steamers  and  the  second  freight  steamers  and  sailing 
\essels,  in  proportion  to  speed  and  tonnage.  Both  meas- 
ures passed  the  Senate,  but  the  second  was  defeated  in  the 
H"u;sc,  and  the  Postal  Aid  Law,  as  finally  enacted,  provided 
lor  much  lower  rates  than  Frye  had  originally  proposed. 


Stat. 

Abstract  of 
U.S.,  1909, 

301-,{02. 

Marvin, 
375-380, 
400-412. 

Bates, 
Ch.  XVIII. 

Scrapie, 
Ch.  XIX. 


Marvin, 
Ch.  XVIII. 

Bates, 

Ch.  XXVII. 

Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erentos  on 
Subsidies. 


Rf    t.  Frye 
Committee, 
SI  Cong., 
I  St  Session, 
House  Rept. 
No.  1210, 
also  Nos. 
27()6,  3273. 


•A    & 


«        ! 


1" 


*    e    ^ 

;'  '  *  i 

V 

•'  V 


I; 


i  I  - 


! 


!"■ - 
1 


I 


•■ 


i,4     H 


I    1 


Frye,  North 
Atlantic 
Steamship 
Transporta- 
tion. 


332      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 
Subsidy  Offered  to  Mail  Steamers,  1891 


Class 


First     . 
Second 
Third   . 
Fourth 


TONNAC.E 

Speed 

Knots 

8000 

20 

1   Sooo 

16 

1   2500 

14 

1500 

12 

Payment  for 
o'jtwakd  vovage 


Per  Mile 

$4.00 
2.00 
1. 00 
0.67 


McVey, 
The  Frye 
Subsidy  Bill 


Under  this  law,  mail  contracts  were  negotiated  with  the 
Pacific  Mail  Company  for  service  between  New  York  and 
Colon,  Panama,  and  San  Francisco,  and  from  San  Fran- 
cisco to  Hongkong  and  Yokohama;    with  the  Oceanic 
Steamship  Companj'  for  service  between  San  Francisco 
and  Honolulu  and 'Australia;    with  the  Ward  Line  to 
Havana  and  Mexico ;  with  the  Red  D  Line  to  Venezuela 
etc. ;    but  our  Pacific  and  South  American  service  wa- 
not '  endangered   by    European    competition.     The    onl> 
company   prepared    to    undertake    a    mail    contract   foi 
transatlantic  service  was  the  Inman  Line,  recently  com( 
under  American  management.     The  subsidy  of  $12,000  01 
every  outward  voyage  enabled  this  company  to  maintau 
a  fleet  of  four  first-class  steamers.     These  vessels,  togethe 
with  some  of  the  larger  coasting  steamers,  were  requi.-^i 
tioned  for  the  government  service  during  the  Spanish  \\  ai 
when  the  requirement  that  all  of  the  officers  and  one  hal 
of  the  crew  of  a  subsidized  ship  be  American  citizen 
proved  to  have  political  as  well  as  e-onomic  significance. 
The  subsidy  offered  in  1891  prt   ed  insufficient  to  ir 
duce  new  ventures  in  the  transatlantic  service  or  to  man 
•   tain  contract  vessels  on  the  longer  routes  to  South  Americ; 
Australasia,  and  the  Orient.     Although  four  fifths  of  tl 
freight   and   tl.ree  fourths  of   the    first   cabin  passent:' 
traffic  originates  in  the  United  States,  the  major  part  ( 
the  shipping  employed  belongs   to  Great   Britain,   (.c 
many,  France,  and  Japan,  so  that  large  sums  are  evei 
year  paid  to  foreign  companies  in  freights  and  fares 


i      ! 


Contemporary  Problems  333 

well  as  for  mail  service.    In  the  hope  of  enabling  American 
ships  to  compete  with  the  heavily  subsidized  English  lines 
Senator  Frye  reintroduced  in  1901  a  general  subsidy  bill.' 
It  called  for  an  annual  appropriation  of  $9,000,000  for  a 
term  of  thirty  years.    The  rates  proposed  were  one  third 
higher   than   those   already   prevailing,    and   they   were 
offered  to  freight  steamers  and  to  sailing  vessels.     The 
bill  was  vigorously  supported   by   the  commercial   and 
shipbuilding  interests,  but  it  was  ultimately  defeated  by 
the  opposition  of  the  agricultural  sections  South  and  West 
Again  m  January,  1910,  when  the  number  of  contract 
Ncssels  had  dwindled  to  four  on  the  Atlantic  and  four  on 
the  Pacific,  and  the  mail  subsidy  had  shrunken  to  $1,185  000 
per  year.  Congressman  Humphreys  of  the  State  of  Wash- 
ington introduced  a  bill  in  behalf  of  the  Pacific  merchant 
marine.     Foreign  built  steel  vessels  were  to  be  admitted 
to  American  registry  and  the  mail  subsidy  was  doubled 
for  vessels  of  the  second  and  third  class  engaged  in  Pacific 
service,  ships  owned  by  railway  companies  being  excluded, 
the  tonnage  tax  was  raised  from  six  cents  to  twelve  cents 
(never  to  exceed  $1.20  per  ton  per  year)  but  eighty  per  cent 
ol  this  charge  was  to  be  remitted  for  United  States  vessels 
carrying  American  boys  as  apprentices. 

The  International  MercantUe  Marine  Company  —  The 
restoration  to  ordinary  trade  of  the  merchantmen  requi- 
sitioned for  transport  service  in  the  South  African  and 
bpamsh-American  wars   broug..t  on  ruinous  competition 
"!  M- f  ^Z,.''"''  ^^'^^  threatened  disaster  even  to  well- 
cstabhshed  hnes.     In  1902  a  combination  of  the  principal 
transatlantic    companies,  with    a    xnew    to    maintaining 
!>ro  .table   rates    distributing   tonnage   among   the  ports 
and  railroad.s  to  be  served,  and  adjusting  sailings  to  traffic, 
v.as  undertaker,  by  C.  A.  Griscom,  president  of  the  Inman 
J^ine,  and  J.   P.   Morgan,  the  great  New  York  banker. 
Ihe  possession  of  the  Inman,  Red  Star,  and  Leland  lines 
an<t  the  purchase  of  a  majority  interest  in  the  Atlantic 
Iransport,    White   Star,  and    Dominion   lines   gave   the 
combmaUon  control  of  one  hundred  and  forty  first-class 


Repts.  Frye 
Committee, 
SSth  Cong., 
3rd  Session. 
Senate  Rept. 
No.  1551. 

57th  Cong, 
ist  Session, 
Senate  Rept 
No.  201. 


Spring,  Ship 
Subsidies. 


Gunsburg, 
The  Atlantic 
Shipping 
Combine. 


Meade, 
Capitaliza- 
tion of  the 
Int.  Mer. 
Marine  Co. 

rhamherlain, 
The  New 
Cunard 
.Steamship 
Contract. 


■f    \ 

i       I 

,    r 

t 


m 


i         ! 


4 


i  : 


, 


,  J 


!  '«' 


I  1 


334      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

steamers,  representing  more  than  a  million  tons  freight 
capacity  and  one  third  the  transatlantic  passenger  accom- 
modations. The  negotiation  of  a  "  working  agreement  " 
with  the  two  great  German  lines  and  the  principal  French 
and  Dutch  companies  gave  the  International  Mercantile 
Marine  a  practical  monopoly  of  commerce  between 
Europe  and  America.  Alarmed  for  the  integrity  of  their 
merchant  service,  the  British  government  offered  the 
Cunard  Company,  as  the  price  of  independence,  an  annual 
subsidy  of  $750,000  on  a  twenty-year  contract,  and  sub- 
sidies were  withdrawn  from  the  White  Star  line. 

OcEAi    Freight  Rates  on  Wheat,  Corn,  Rye  Per  Cwt.  from 
New  York  to  Liverpool 


1886 "59 

1887 8-75 

1888 9- 19 

1889 1378 

1890 8. S3 

i8gi IO-94 

1892 9- 19 

1893 *-3' 

1894 ^-78 

189s 8-97 

1896 10-28 


1897  ■ 

1898 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 
1904 

190S 
1906 


10.72 
12.03 

8.53 
II. 81 
4.38 
S-03 
S-03 
3-04 
S-^'O 
s-03 


1     , 


The  Morgan  combination  was  formed  at  the  close  of  ; 
decade  of  abnormal  prosperity,  and  the  subsidizing  com 
panies  were  taken  over  at  a  price  based  on  the  revenues  (> 
1900  with  no  regard  to  cost  of  ships  or  previous  capita  li 
zation.  The  economies  of  combination  were  overesti 
mated  and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  maintaininj 
monopoly  of  the  transatlantic  trade  were  miscalculated 
The  panic  of  1003  well-nigh  wrecked  the  enterprise,  aiK 
its  capital  stock  of  $170,600,000  shrank  to  $70,000,00^ 
market  value.  No  dividends  have  as  yet  been  paid  o 
preferred  or  common  stock.    The  International  Mercar 


Contemporary  Problems 


335 


tile  Marine  has  lost  control  of  its  French,  German,  and 
English  lines,  but  it  has  done  much  to  insure  financial 
permanence  to  the  American  transatlantic  service. 


Currency  Problems 

Demonetization  of  Silver :    the  Gold  Standard.  —  Our 

bimetallic  currency  system  has  never  been  in  full  and 
successful  operation.  The  overvaluation  of  gold  in  the 
Coinage  Act  of  1834  was  enhanced  by  the  enormous  out- 
put of  the  California  mines.  Production  of  silver  in  the 
United  States  was  inconsiderable  until  1870  and  the 
annual  output  was  readily  absorbed  in  the  arts,  little  was 
brought  to  the  mints,  and  that  little  was  coined  into  de- 
based fractional  currency,  as  provided  by  the  Act  of 
1S53.  The  sum  total  of  the  silver  dollars  coined  from 
1789  to  1873  was  but  eight  millions,  while  gold  had  been 
coined  since  1850  at  the  rate  of  $32,000,000  per  year. 
No  specie  was  in  circulation  during  the  war  period  except 
the  $25,000,000  in  gold  used  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  the 
attempt  to  get  back  to  a  specie  basis.  Congress  naturally 
overiooked  the  part  that  silver  had  been  intended  to 
serve  in  our  currency  system.  The  Coinage  Act  of  1873 
aimed  to  conform  currency  legislation  to  e.xisting  condi- 
tions;  the  silver  dollar  of  371.25  grains  was  dropped  from 
the  list  of  coins  to  be  minted,  but  the  manufacture  of  a 
coin  containing  378  grains  of  pure  silver  was  authorized 
for  use  in  the  Oriental  trade.  This  trade  dollar,  like  the 
fractional  silver,  was  given  legal  tender  efficiency  to  the 
amount  of  five  dollars  only. 

The  demonetization  of  silver  attracted  little  attention 
at  the  moment,  but  it  was  soon  denounced  in  bitterest 
terms  as  a  fraud  perpetrated  upon  an  unsuspecting  people 
by  the  money  lenders  of  Wall  Street.  The  supposed  plot 
was  not  discovered  until  the  increasing  output  of  silver 
from  the  Nevada  mines  brought  an  oversupply  of  that 
metal  into  the  market  and  caused  a  fall  in  price.  Unfor- 
tunately for  this  interest,  the  foreign  market  was  seriously 


Dewey, 

403-410. 

Laughlin, 
Ch.  VII. 

Rapt,  of 
the  U.S. 
Monetary 
Commission, 
1876. 


Noyes, 
American 
Finance, 
3S-42. 


i.  I   ■  i 


1  f 
r 


1: 


ri 


! 


I 


1  i^'* 


w 


1  ' 


1      ! 


Laughlin, 
Ch.  XIII. 

Sherman,  II, 
603-635. 


Noyes,  .\m. 
Finance, 
Ch.  IV,  VI. 


336      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

curtailed  at  this  same  time  by  the  demonetization  of  silver 
in  Germany  (1871),  in  Holland  and  the  Scandinaviar 
Peninsula  (1875),  and  in  Austria  (1879).  The  Latir 
Union  continued  to  use  ?'  er  as  legal  tender,  but  «us 
pended  coinage  in  1873.  3y  consequence,  the  markei 
ratio  of  silver  to  gold  veered  from  15.57  in  1871  to  17. S; 
in  1876.  Close  upon  this  drop  in  market  value  arose  ; 
demand  for  the  renewed  coinage  of  silver  at  the  legal  ratic 
of  sixteen  to  one.  The  agitati-n  originated  with  thi 
mine  owners  of  Nevada  and  Colorado,  who  wished  to  dfe 
pose  of  their  product  at  the  mint;  but  it  was  eagerl; 
seconded  by  the  debtor  class,  the  unfailing  advocates  c 
cheap  and  abundant  money.  The  farmers  of  the  ne\ 
West,  struggling  under  hea\'y  mortgages,  were  easily  cor 
vinceu  that  the  value  of  gold  had  been  advanced  by  th 
money  monopolists  of  New  York  City,  and  that  siht 
was  the  true  measure  of  purchasing  power.  The  panic  ( 
1873  and  the  prolonged  .  1  ingency  in  the  money  markt 
lent  plausibility  to  this  not  unnatural  inference. 

Richard  Bland  of  Missouri  brought  before  the  Hon? 
(1876)  a  bill  providing  for  the  free  And  unlimited  coinaj; 
of  silver  at  the  ratio  established  in  1834.  The  bill  passe 
the  House  after  protracted  debate,  but  a  Senate  amenc 
ment  restricted  the  amount  of  silver  bullion  that  mijjl- 
be  presented  at  the  mint  and  authorized  the  secretar\-  ( 
the  treasury  to  coin  at  his  discretion  from  two  to  foi 
million  dollars'  worth  of  silver  per  month.  President  Hayt 
vetoed  the  measure  on  the  ground  that  the  proposed  doUa 
was  eight  or  ten  cents  less  in  value  than  it  professed  to  be 
but  the  bill  was  carried  over  his  veto  and  became  law  i 
1878.  The  silver  dollars  coined  under  the  Bland  A( 
were  to  have  full  legal  tender  efficiency,  and  their  circul; 
tion  was  furthered  by  the  issue  of  paper  certificates  again: 
the  coin  held  at  the  mints. 

This  law  was  in  force  for  twelve  years,  during  whi( 
time  there  were  coined  $369,400,000  silver  dollars,  and  i"r 
coinage  of  gold  for  the  same  interval  amounted  t 
$470,600,000.     The  volume  of  the  specie  currency  wc 


Contemporary  Problems  337 

doubled,    the   total   per   capita   circulation   rising   from 

^i^'^j  "!  ^T  ^°  1"-^'  ^"  ^^^'^°'  ^"d  "^o"«y  ^-^as  more 
abundant  than  in  the  years  of  inflation  preceding  the 
cnsis  of  1873.  Gold  began  to  leave  the  country 
($32000,000  was  exported  in  1882  and  $41,000,000  in 
1884),  and  silver  superseded  gold  in  payments  on  govern- 
ment obhgations  as  well  as  in  private  exchange  The 
cnsis  of  1884  was  due  in  some  degree  to  this  adoption  of 
a  depreciated  currency. 

The  advocates  of  cheap  money  were  not  alarmed  bv 
the  prospect  o    the   substitution   of  a   silver  standard. 
They  persistently  urged  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage 
of  silver  as  the  only  means  of  doing  justice  between  debtor 
and  creditor.    Under  the  names  of  the  Farmers  Alliance 
and  the  Populist  party,  the  agricultural  sections  argued 
now  as  always  for  inflation  of  the  currency.     The  agita- 
Uon  for  and  against  free  silver  culminated  in  the  Sherman 
Act  of  August  14.  1890,  a  measure  that  represented  the 
desires  of  neither  partj-,  bui  was  a  compromise  of  con- 
tending  interests.     The   secretary   of   the   treasury   was 
directed    to   purchase    silver    bullion    at    the    rZtel? 
4,500,000    ounces    per    month,    the   market   price    (up 
to    he  hmit  of  one  doUar  for  371.25  grains)  being  pa"d 
blHolH ?",""''  'T   "^^  purpose  and   re'de'em- 
eo  -il/t  .   .u'  ^'""  ""^  '^'"'^"^-     The  Bland  Act  was 

mu chof'^h     h  n'  '''"'"'■''■  ""^  ""^^°"^^d  to  coin  as 
much  of   his  bullion  mto  standard  silver  dollars  as  might 

tes  it'Ti'T  ''  'r^'  '''  ^^^  ^^^^-Pt--  °f  the 
year,  coupled  with  exports,  promised  to  absorb  the  total 
annual  output  of  the  mines  of  the  United  Staf»  ,  and 

ad  Z  T  '}  T""  '"  ^"^"^t,  1890,  was  r7..6  to  one, 
I  ose  It"^  f  f  ^  ^"^^•-  bullion  in  a  standard  dolla; 

\ct  h  Tfn  .T  ^  ''  '"^  ninety-two  cents.  The  Sherman 
r^ct  htid  for  three  years  and  a  half,  and  during  that  time 

the  government  bought  up  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine 

*n  ounces  of  silver  at  a  cost  of  $156  000,00c     Af    r 


Dewey, 

436-450- 
Rept.  of 
the  Sec. 
of  the 
Treasury, 
1889, 
Ix-lzxziv. 


Sherman,  II, 
1061-1071. 

Hoxie, 
Debate  of 
1890. 

Taussig, 
The  Silver 
Situation, 
1-7 1. 

Noyes,  Am. 
Finance, 
Ch.  VII. 

Rept.  of 

Monetary 

Commission, 

1898, 
138-145. 


w 


w 


sift 


4 


i , 


1     f 


338      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

a  brief  revival,  the  value  of  silver  slumped  again,  and  t 
Treasury  lost  $16,000,000  on  account  of  this  depreciat 
deposit. 


Ratio  of  Silver 
TO  Gold. 

Legal  Ratio 

,  I7g2-i834,      is:  i 
•  1834+        i5-g»:i 


ThiB  chart  is  to  be  rc«d  from  left  si.lc    f  page.     Each  square 
to  igoQ  represents  one  year. 


U"V 


Contemporary  Problems  ^^t^^ 

THs  dosperai-  ei.deavor  to  raise  the  market  value  of 
silve    tc  the  mint  n.tio  was  ultimately  thwarted  by  events 
in  tii<'  r.r  Ea^t.     The  Biitish  government  suspended  the 
coinage  of  tae  silver  rupee  in  June,  1893,  the  East  Indian 
market  was  suddenly  cut  off,  and  the  ratio  of  silver  to 
gold   veered    immediately    to    28.25    to    one.     President 
Cleveland  called  a  midsummer  e.xtra  session  of  Congress 
and  presented  the  necessity  of  stopping  the  purchase  of 
silver.     The   House  readily  acquiesced,  but   the  Senate, 
where  the  silver  interest  had  been  recruited  by  the  admis- 
sion of  several  Western  states,  -  Wyoming,  Idaho,  and 
Montana, -stubbornly     contested     the     measure.     The 
bhermi  •  Act  was  finally  repealed,  and  the  purchases  of 
silver  Dullion  ceased  in  December,  1894.     The  coinage  of 
the  silver  bullion  m  the  treasury  was  suspended  until  1898 
when  the  minting  of  $1,500,000  per  month  was  ordered' 
The  rating  of  the  discredited  metal  sank  to  32  .6  to  one 
in  1894.    At  that  ratio,  the  value  of  the  silver  in  a  stand- 
ard dollar  was  but  forty-nine  cents. 

The  Financial  Crisis  of  1893.  -  Meantime,  the  business 
«orld  was  convulsed  by  a  panic  of  unprecedented  severity 

fnH  "irT  ?"'"'.  ^^'^  '"^"""^   speculative  investments, 
and  the  banking  facilities  of  New  York  City  had  become 
heavily  involved      The  failure  of  the  Philadelphia  and 
Rca.hng  Railroad    (February  20,  1893)  occasioned  wide- 
preaci  alarm,  and  the  general  public  became  uneasy  as 
to  the   solvency    of    the    banking    system.     Depositors 
no  ably  in  the  South  and  West,  began  to  demand  S 
hard-earned  cash,  and  the  banks  were  forced  to  call  in 
e,r  deposits  from  the  reserve  cities.     But  the  $204,000,000 
of  currency  absorbed  by  the  seaboard  institutions  had  been 
^ono,l   for   investment    and    was    not    easily    reco^•ered. 
^me  .,ve  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  smaller  banks  were 

url    T.  ^  ['•''   '^''"''"  ^y  ^^^"••f   *<>  •'»"  emergency 
un.n,-v  after  the  precedent  of  1857  and  .8,,     The  Xew 

i  Z  ""'^  "''"•'*'  "'■'"^  '"*"  certificates  for  the  ac- 

commcdation  of  its  affiliated  banks,  and  this   makeshift 


Cong. 
Record, 
XXV,  Pt.  I, 
205-206. 


Sherman.  II, 
II 75-1 200. 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Is-sue,  Ch. 
XXIV. 

Burton, 
202- JOS. 

Noyes, 
American 
Finance, 
Ch.  VIII. 


f    ll|f^< 


:1k   I 


'  ill  M  ' 


1 


i.  : 


ti: 


f  I 


■  I- 
I  * 


li     i     *    ^"1     rt, 


t    I 
I  'A 


i  ti'i  it  ■ 


Kept. 
Monetary 
Com.,  i8q8, 
219-223. 


Dewey, 

460-462, 
468-471. 

Taussig, 
Currency 
Art  of  1900 


Falkner, 

Currenry 
Law  of  I  goo 


340      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

wrs  imitated  in  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Pitts 

burg.     The  business  failures  for  1893  numbered  15,24. 

the  total  losses  amounted  to  $346,779,889,  and  the  dt 

pression  extended  to  every  branch  of    industry.     Man 

of  the  silver  mines  could  not  be  operated  at  prevailir 

prices  and  discharged  their  laborers;    the  European  di 

mand  for  wheat  fell  off,  and  the  price  of  this  great  stap 

dropped  to  fifty  cents  a  bushel,  and  this  decUne,  coupk 

Nvith  the  failure  of  the  corn  crop  (1894)  involved  thousanc 

of  farmers  in  ruin ,    manufacturers,  menaced  by  the  r 

duction  of  import  duties  proposed  in  the  Wilson  Bill,  cu 

tail.'l  production  or  shut  down  altogether,  traffic  declini 

and  freight  receipts  fell  off  to  a  disastrous  degree ;  railw: 

coin  panics  were  seriously  embarrassed  and  constructi( 

cc;  sjd,  the  demand  for  rails  and  structural  iron  shran 

and  steel  manufacturers  reduced    their  output  by  0 

third.    The  reaction  upon  wage  earners  was  severe  ;   ic 

farm  hands  tramped  the  country  in  search  of  work,  u 

employed  operatives  crowded  the  streets  of  the  facto 

townsi  demanding  work  or  food,  laborers  abandoned  t 

mining  districts  and  flocked  to  the  cities.    The  wh^ 

country  was  prostrated. 

The  election  of  1896,  involving  the  possibility  of  fi 
coinage  of  silver  at  the  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one,  prolong 
business  unrest,  and  the  failures  of  that  year  numbci 
15,088,  but  the  victory  of  the  Republicans  restored  c< 
fid'ence  in  the  stability  of  the  currency.  Decisive  art 
was.  however,  delayed  by  an  opposing  majority  in 
Senate,  and  not  until  1900  was  the  gold  standard  declar 
The  extraordinary  revival  of  business  prosperity  al 
McKinlcy's  election  was  due  not  so  much  to  legislat 
as  to  far-reaching  transformation  of  economic  conditio 
The  failure  of  the  wheat  crop  in  Russia  and  .Austr 
called  for  heavy  exportations  of  grain  and  brought  ab 
a  welcome  rise  of  prices.  With  wheat  selling  at  a  do 
a  bushel,  the  farmer  could  pay  his  debts  and  sjjcnd  mo 
for  improvements.  The  foreign  market  for  Amon 
steel  and  structural  iron  was  being  developed,  and  a  pei 


-mi^Mr^ 


i 


^ 


.-i^ 

Hnrrr  ^J 

-^  v-V. .,/ 


;r-" 


■g^i^»>'Jaft!»!pSr: 


Modern  Machinery  in  thk  Corn  Belt 


il :  t  ,J  j: 

r     i    ? 

f  II 

III 


.'  '        i 


f 


I 


ii 
i  i 


!     1 


11,! 

111 


i 


fii:iii 

i 
■  i 

'I 


I    t 


Contemporary  Problems 


341 

of  extraordinary  prosperity  opened  for  that  basic  indus- 
try. The  discovery  of  gold  in  Alaska  brought  a  new 
supply  of  the  hoarded  metal  .  our  mints,  and  between 
1898  and  igo8,  $1,105,332,650  in  gold  was  coined.    The 

^Mhe  Het  TT'u  '^^  '^'  ^"PP^y  °^  sold  was  short 
of  the  demand,  and  that  its  value  was,  therefore,  appre- 
ciating ceased  to  have  weight.  The  per  capita  currency 
circulation  rose  from  $21.41  in  1896  to  $35  79  in  'noT 
and  the  advocates  of  abundant  money  were  fully  ati  fied' 
Revision  of  the  National  Bank  System.  -  The  voume 

b  nks'  "ZwV^rl^''''  '""^^^^^  by  the  national 
banks.     Their  issues  had  been  actually  curtailed  after  the 

ofTnotrr  ''  ''V  •'^"'.^''^  ^"^  ^^93.     The  amoun 
of  the  notes  in  circulation  in  1891  was  but  $162,000,000, 

t     r"    M     f  ^"^  ^'""^  '^"^^  ^865.    The  number  o 

adTa  ;rofTT''.r  '"''^'y  •""^^^•"«'  b"^  their  issues 
had  fallen  ofT,  for  the  approaching  extinction  of  the  gov- 
ernment bonds  gave  these  securities  a  high  market  value 
To  issue  money  against  ninety  per  cent  of  the  par  value  of 
Xting   ""'  '"'"^  ^'^^^  P^^  '-'''  -'  '  P-fitable 

The  free  sUver  and  greenback  constituencies  were  quite 
a)ntent  to  see  this  element  of  our  currency  disappear 
The  majonty  of  our  national  banks  were  in  the  wSthy 
ct.es  of  the  East  and  North,  and  they  were  regarded  in 

her  sections  of  the  country  as  parties  to  the  consplnicy 
of  the  money  lenders  against  the  people.     Various  projects 

marl  from  time  to  time,  such  as  the  extension  of  The 

on  <;/  T.fTT     ""'?'•  ."7  bond  issues,  the  substitu- 

Wem  S    '1  """"'^'P'*  ^°"^^'  ^"^   the  safety  fund 

.v^tem,  but  no  thoroughgoing  reform  was  able  to  secure 

a  majority  vote.     Finally  the  proposition  of  Sec  eZ 

GaRc   or  revis  on  of  the  existing  pl^n  .as  adopted   an^ 

Z'"t''T '''':'     \'^'  ^''  "^  '''^''^  ^4.  1000.  note 
the  ta;  on    •'''' w.'"  '^'  t"ll  face  value  of   the  bonds. 

ne  la  f  n?      '"'''''°"  ''^'  '^^^"^^  ^'•«'"  ""'^  I'*-"-  cent  to 
one  half  of  one  per  cent,  and  national  banks  with  a  capital 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
Ch.  XV. 


Dewey,  385- 
391,  410-412, 
471-472. 

Bolles,  III, 
341-372. 


White, 
Money  and 
Banking, 
Ch.  XVI, 
XVII. 


Hepburn, 
State  and 
Natl  Bank 
Note  Cir- 
culation. 


'    IS 


f  1 

L     ( 

I 


H 


II- 


! 


i^  !! 


342 


Kept.  Sec. 
of  the  Treas., 
i8g7, 
76-77- 


Rept. 
Monetary 
Com.,  i8q8, 
224-276. 


Noyes, 
American 
Finance, 
Ch.  XX. 


Conant, 
Banlcs  of 
Issue, 
Ch.  XXV. 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


of  but  $25,000  were  authorized  in  towns  of  not  more  tha 
three  thousand  inhabitants.  These  modifications  otTere 
considerable  reUef  from  the  difficulty  under  which  tl 
banks  were  laboring.  The  issue  of  new  Federal  bon( 
for  the  Spanish  War  and  for  the  building  of  the  Panan 
Canal  enabled  the  banks  to  purchase  these  securities  ( 
terms  under  which  currency  could  profitably  be  issue 
By  September,  1901,  662  new  banks  were  chartere 
country  banks  for  the  most  part,  capitalized  at  less  thi 
$50000.  The  number  of  national  banks  in  Septemb. 
1907,  was  7000,  more  than  at  any  previous  period.  1 
issue  has  risen  to  8717,000.00°'  ^^^  ^^^  average  divide: 
paid  by  national  banks  increased  from  3.94  per  ct 
in  1900  to  II. 8  per  cent  in  1907. 

Reform  Propositicns.  —  The  panic  of    1907   attract 

renewed  attention  to  the  defects  of  our  banking  syste 

The  special  strain  upon  credit  agencies  that  develops 

the  autumn  when  the  purchase  and    transportation 

crops  necessitates  extraordinary  drafts  upon  the    fur 

deposited   in   the   central    reser\e   cities   was   unusu;i 

severe,  the  foreign  loans  negotiated  by  Wall  Street  bank 

in  the  interest  of  stock  exchange  speculators  in  antici] 

tion  of  grain  shipments  reached  unprecedented  dim 

sions,  and  the  stock  market  went  wild  over  some  dul)i( 

industrials.     The  normal  limits  of  safety  were  ignored, 

terest  on  time  loans  rose  to  six  and  seven  per  cent,  and  bai 

and  trust  companies  extended  their  loans  until  the 

serves  were  depleted  below  the  legal  minimum  of  tweii 

five  per  cent.    The  crash  came  in  October  ;  the  expos 

of  personal  speculation  on  the  part  of  the  officers  of  sc\  ( 

banks,  trust  companies,  and  insurance  companies,  ami 

mismanagement  of  the  Metropolitan  Street  Railway  Ci 

pany,  shook  public  confidence  in  stock  investments  ;in( 

the  integrity  of  all  credit  agencies.     A  run  upon    ( 

prominent  banks  followed.     Even  solvent  institutions  v 

"unable  to  meet  their  obligations  in  cash,  and  many  taih 

occurred.     The  Banks  of  England  and  Germany  ra 

their  discount  rate,  and  foreign  loans  fell  off.    The  cxtr; 


j 


I  i 


Contemporary  Problems 


343 


dmary  demand  for  money  forced  the  rate  cf  interest  on 
demand  loans  up  to  40  per  cent,  50  per  ceut,  and'exen 
125  per  cent  dunng  the  few  desperate  days  of  panic 

To  mmimize  the  effect  of  the  crisis,  heroic  measures  Johnson 
were    resorted    to.     The    United    States    Treasury    sent  ^-^^-^ 
$25,000,000  to  New  York  to  deposit  with  the  national   '^^• 
banks,  enabhng  them  to  aid  the  jeopardised  institutions, 
and  certam  promment  financiers  organized  a  money  poo 
out  of  which  immediate  obligations  might  be  met.     Gold 
was  imported  from  abroad,  and  clearing  house  certificates 
^vere  issued  to  the  amount  of  850,000,000.     Such  mutua 
habi  ity  credentials  had  been  resorted  to  after  the  panic 

c  is '''  In  th      ".'  '''  ?"■'  '''^^  ^"^  '"  ^^'->^  -bseq^uent 
ens  s.     In  the  autumn  of  1907  this  substitute  for  currency 

.■as  utilized  not  only  in  New  York  but  in  Chicago  and 

St.  Louis  and  in  practically  all  of  the  reserve  cities      In 

districts  remote  from   financial  centers,  business  houses 

Sou  o'fTr''  "^  ^^^'  "^"'"'^  ^^^'^  P^^^""^l  -hecks  in 
lieu  of  cash  payment. 

thi^fh'"'''  ""^  ^^OT  j^^  unlike  all  previous  crises  in 
that  there  was  no  subsequent  depression.  Few  railroad 
corporations  were  forcH  into  bankruptcy,  and  the  pro-" 

c^     of  r  T  ^"''''"  ""'  ""'  ^°  high  as  after  the 

Tl      ^^?^-     \  '''^'  ^  "-h  man's  panic,  confined  to  the 
lock  market  and  credit  operations,  and  the  prosperity  of 
the  country  at  large  was  undiminished.     Farms    mines 
and  factories  continued  production  undeterred,  and  there 

"aSroaT""""'  '^.^""^  '"  P"^^^'  ^'^^-'  '-^'  values 
or  radroad  earnings.     The  output  of  pig  iron,  a  sure  inde.x 

l''«:  Iron  Prodiction  ix  Thousand  Tons,  ,897-1908. 


IT 


h 


It  f 


»  ill 


'807  ^ 

.So,     ■     ■ "•/'•' 

17.821 


">°3 ,S,oo9 

•"°4 ,6,4<,7 

"»°.> Z2,qq2 

''^°" ^5..?07 

■W iv78i 

"^^ 15.936 


I      li: 


*  1   I     I 
'  i 

i. 


*   i 


"5 

I 


If 


I  I   ! 


ISC.  h 


■        I    . 

1  s      I 


Reynolds 

Central 

Bank. 


Warburg, 
Central  Re- 
serve Bank 


Sprague, 

Central 

Bank. 


344      Industrial  History  of  the  Unite  '■  States 

of  market  conditions,  reflected  the  advancing  tide  of  proi 
perity.  Corporation  securities  alone  shrank  in  valu( 
but  here  the  apparent  loss  was  appalling,  amounting  t 
$10,000,000,000,  or  one  third  the  par  value  of  the  stoc 
on  the  market.  Even  here,  the  recovery  was  rapid  beyon 
precedent,  and  within  a  year  after  the  crash  we  were  on( 
more  in  the  heyday  of  prosperity,  and  speculators  ar 
promoters  were  again  at  work  developing  every  knov 
resource  of  the  country.  Wiseacres  shake  their  heads  ar 
prophesy  that  we  are  riding  for  a  fall,  but  the  averai 
business  man  is  confident  of  success. 

The  annual  stringency  is  due  to  no  lack  of  mone 
Our  present  per  capita  circulation  is  greater  than  that 
any   European   country   except   France.     In    1907    tht 
was  gold  coin  in  the  United  States  to  the  amount 
$1,780,000,000,  and  of  this  all  but  $680,000,000  was  c 
posited  in  the  United  States  Treasury,  a  specie  reserve  th 
exceeded  the  combined  deposits  of  the  National  Bar 
of  England,  France,  and   Germany.    The  paper  men 
in  circulation  amounted  to  $2,332,000,000  practically 
of  which  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people.     It  was  e 
dent  that  the  mechanism  of  credit  was  inelastic  and  tl 
some  more  effective  means  of  getting  hoarded  currer 
into  circulation  must  be  provided. 

In   1908  a  monetary  commission  was  appointed  w 
authority  to  investigate  banking  experience  at  home  a 
abroad,  and  report  a  scheme  of  reform.     Its  thirty  volu 
report,  published  in  1910,  is  the  most  thoroughgoing 
quiry  into  the  history  and  practice  of  banking  yet  ma 
The  recommendation  for  a  central  bank,  after  the  fore 
model,  to  serve  as  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  Federal  g(.vc 
ment  and  receive  Treasury  deposits,  and  to  act  as  u  a 
mon  reserve  for  all  national  banks,  is  now  belorc 
country.     Its  advocates  believe  that  such  an  institut 
should  be  authorized  to  regulate  the  volume  of  the  ( 
rency  and  to  control  credit  operations  by  adjustinK 
rate  of  discount  on  loans  to  meet  a  financial  emergency 
Meantime  public  discussion   has  centered   about 


Contemporaty  Problems  345 

other  proposed  reforms.  A  postal  savings  bank  had  been 
advocated  by  Postmaster  Meyer  and  indorsed  by  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  with  a  view  to  attracting  small  deposits 
from  wage  earners.  The  proposition  was  indorsed  in  the 
Repubhcan  platform  of  1908,  and  embodied  in  an  enact- 
ment of  1910.  The  post-offices  of  the  country  afford  the 
most  convenient  possible  medium  for  savings  accounts 
and  the  security  offered  by  the  Federal  government  is 
absolute.  The  success  of  the  experiment  in  some  thirty 
different  nations  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  and 
bouth  America  would  seem  to  indicate  that  this  oppor- 
tumty  for  accumulation  would  be  especially  adapted  to 
our  immigrant  population  who,  in  default  of  any  better 
provision,  are  depositing  considerable  sums  with  the 
government  m  the  form  of  postal  orders,  but  the  scheme 

Foreign  Postal  Savings,  1907 


Uni     1  Kingdom 

Italy      .     .  . 
France  .     . 

Austria  .     .  . 

Russia   .     .  .     , 

Nftiierlands  .     , 

Hungary     .  . 

Sweden       .  . 
Finland 

J^pan    .     .  .     . 


Number  op 
Depositors 


Total 
Deposits 


10,692,555 
4,904,714 

4,794,874 

2,064,403 

1,788,990 

1,336,846 

648,652 

566,976 

60,007 

8,013,193 


$766,474,125 
273-702,695 

258,374,735 
44,269,223 

128,873,169 
58,489,392 
18,044,000 
13,582,491 
1,410,610 

46,275,301 


Per  Capita 
Deposits 


$71.68 
55.80 
53.89 
21.45 
72.04 

43-75 
27.82 
23.96 
25.51 

5-77 


Statistical 
Abstract, 
1908,  727. 


^1 


\ :«  ft 


^as  strenuously  opposed  by  small  bankers  and  savings 
mstitutions  generally  on  the  ground  that  it  would  draw 
oti  custom  which  might  otherwise  accrue  to  them. 

Ihe  panacea  proposed  by  the  Democratic  party  wa^  the 
guarantee  of  bank  deposits  on  the  Oklahoma  plan.  This 
new  and  courageous  commonwealth  enacted  a  law  CDecem- 
^"  17,  1907),  immediately  after  the  panic,  creating  a 


\'\ 


Webster, 
Depositors' 
Guarantee 
Law  of 
Oklahoma. 


U    t 


! !  4 1- 


If;'  :t 


i  •■ 


346      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

guarantee  fund  by  assessing  the  banks  chartered  by  th 

state  one  per  cent  on  average  deposits.     The  fund  was  t 

be  administered  by  a  State  Banking  Board  made  up  < 

the  governor,  heutenant  governor,  president  of  board  t 

agriculture,  the  state  treasurer,  and  the  auditor,  and  \va 

to  be  drawn  upon  from  time  to  time  to  remunerate  th 

depositors  of  bankrupt  institutions.     The  Board  was  ui 

fortunately  given  no  adequate  powers  of  inspection  an 

regulation  such  as  are  exercised  by  the  Comptroller  of  tli 

Currency  over  national  banks,  and  the  bankers  then 

selves  undertook  no  form  of  associated  control.     The  in 

m';diate  effect  was  to  attract  to  banking  enterprises 

number  of  speculators  eager  to  take  advantage  of  r( 

newed  public  confidence.    The  legal  minimum  for  capiti 

required  was  $10,000,  men  of  little  experience  and  que 

tionable  business  reputation  were  able  to  secure  charter 

and  soon  every  village  in  the  state  had  one  or  more  bank 

The  offer  of  high  rates  of  interest  brought  out  the  latci 

resources  of  a  prosperous  farming  community  and  deposi 

accumulated  with  amazing  rapidity,  insomuch  that_  sever 

national  banks  surrendered  their  Federal  charters  in  ore! 

to  participate  in  the  access  of  l)usincss.     When  the  Intc 

national  State  Bank  of   Coalgate  faUed,   the  deposit.) 

were  paid  in  full  out  of  the  guarantee  fund,  but  the  tot 

liabilities  were  inconsiderable.     When,  however,  the  C 

lumbia  Bank  and  Trust  Company  of  Oklahoma  City,  tl 

largest  credit  agency  in  the  state,  closed  its  doors  (Se 

teniber,  1909)  the  guarantee  system  was  put  to  a  sevf 

strain.     With  a  capital  of  8200,000  this  institution  h; 

acquired  deposits  amounting  to  $2,806,000,  besides  esta 

lishing  a  series  of  branch  banks.     Individual  depositf 

were  paid  in  full  and  trust  funds  were  relegated  to  th( 

respective  bond  securities,  but  to  make  good  the  sui 

due  to  corresponding  banks,  a  special  assessment  of  thr 

fourths  of  one  per  cent  was  necessary.     The  more  substs 

tial  bankers  challenged  the  ruling  of  the  bank  commissioi 

and  appealed  to  the  courts  to  determine  the  issue.    It  1 

came  evident  that  the  Oklahoma  law  did  not  afford  su 


Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erences on 
Railroads. 


Contemporary  Problems  347 

cient  safeguards  against  wildcat  banking,  and  the  plans 
for  guaranteed  deposits  adopted  in  1909  by  Kansas,  Ne- 
braska, South  Dakota,  and  Texas  were  more  conservative. 

Government  Control  of  Railroads 

The  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  wit- 
nessed a  development  of  railway  transportation  unpar- 
alleled even  in  the  decade  following  on  the  CivU  War 
The  mdustrial  depression  consequent  on  the  crisis  of  187?" 
once  past,  track  construction  was  prosecuted  with  re- 
doubled energy.  The  total  mileage  in  operation  in  1908  Stat. 
IS  240,000  as  agamst  74,000  miles  in  1875.    The  capital  in-  ^''*''»*:' 

hat  of  1875.     The  ratio  between  mileage  and  population   ^81. 
(27  to  10,000)  mdicates  that  transportation  facilities  have 
more  than  kept  pace  with  the  development  of  the  country 
The  passenger  business  of  the  railroads  has  doubled  in 
the  past  twenty  years,  while  the  freight  traffic  has  in- 
creased 335.8  per  cent.    Passenger  rates  have  been  pretty 
steadily  maintained  at  an  average  of  two  cents  a  mile, 
but  freight  rates  have  fallen  from  one  and  one  fourth  cents 
per  ton  mile  in  1882  to  three  fourths  of  a  cent  in  1908 
Ihis  reduction  in  charges  has  been  usually  consistent  with 
maintenance  of  dividends,  because,  the  roads  once  estab- 
lished and  imtial  construction  expenses  covered   traffic 
grows  more  rapidly  than  current  expenses. 

Charges  per  ton  mile  have  been  of  necessity  higher  on 
the  Western  and  Southern  roads,  especially  in  the  initial 
stages  of  their  development.  The  effects  of  the  devasta- 
lons  of  the  Civil  War  are  evident  in  the  high  charges  on 
the  Richmond  and  Danville  line.  Profits  depend  on  the 
amount  and  character  of  the  freight  transported,  rather 
han  on  the  rates  secured,  and  the  volume  of  traffic  fluc- 
tuates with  general  industrial  conditions.  The  average 
rate  of  dividends  was  considered  low  in  1876.  but  it  fell 
to  two  per  cent  after  the  crisis  of  1884,  then  rose  slightly, 
only  to  fall  again  to  one  and  one  half  per  cent  with  the 


I  ■ 


\ 


I! 


3,  f  ? 


■'  I 


hi 


;      a 

;     3 


.  1  •! 


1 

F 

! 

H 

1    ! 

1 

i'l 

tHj 


H 


t , 


1  i 


i;=i:U 


:  J   !    f        i 


Stat. 
Abstract 
U.S.,  1904, 
400-402. 


SUt. 
Abstract 
U.S.,  igog, 
287. 


348      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

industrial  depression  of  1893.  Since  1897  annual  dividend 
have  risen  steadily.  The  ratio  of  dividends  paid  to  tota 
stock,  common  and  preferred,  was  5.25  in  1908. 

Average  Receipts  per  Ton  Mile  on  Leading  Railroads 


White, 
Hist,  of 
Union 
Pacific. 

Davis, 
Union 
Pacific 
Railway. 

Annals  .\m. 
Academy, 
8 :  »S9- 


1870 

18S0 

1890 
$.64 

1898 
$.56 

1899 
$.52 

1900 

1901 
$.!i9 

1902 

1903 

Erie 

$1.33 

$.84 

,.,. 

$•64 

$.01 

.87 

C.  B.  &  Q.     .    .    . 

3.06 

1.28 

■95 

.93 

.87 

.86 

•85 

•77 

Santa  Vi   .     .     .     . 

3-23 

243 

1.23 

1.03 

1.02 

.98 

■99 

Richmond  &  Dan- 

ville   

5-37 

2.16 

.77 

Southern   .     .    .    • 
Union  P.icitic     .    . 

4.26 

I.Q9 

1.38 

•93 
1.04 

•90 
1.02 

.92 
I. OS 

•94 
I  03 

•93 
.98 

•95 
■97 

Average  for  all 
Roads    .... 

2.39 

I.I6 

.80 

.62 

.62 

.63 

.63 

.64 

.60 

Average  Rate  (1876) 

of  Dividend 

on  Stock    .    .    . 

3037f 

2.85':^ 

1.82% 

1.71% 

1-92% 

2.447^ 

2.65% 

J.07% 

3.0.1' 

The  crisis  of  1884  was  occasioned  by  over-investmiii 

in  railroads.     The  mileage  built  in  18S2  and  1883  (i 8,31-1 

exceeded  the  construction  of  1870  and  1871  by  five  thoi 

sand  miles.     In  1884  and  1885  eighty-one  railway  corpur; 

tions  holding  nineteen  thousand  miles  of  track  were  placi 

under    receivership,    and    thirty-seven    smaller    raiirDa 

properties  were  sold  under  foreclosure     Transporu^ti'^ 

investments  had  no  part  in  bringing  on  rne  panic  of    -u 

but  the  railroads  suffered  severely  from  the  conseoat- 

depression.     Both  freight  and  passenger  traffic   te« 

earnings  declined,  and  some  of  the  more  spt  :ulativ.e  sir 

prises  were  unable  to  cover  operatinc  e:;r>en;^i<   laE  tm- 

interest    payments    on    their    bondeu      iehi.     Zihsjo 

brought  suit,  and  the  roads,  one  after  anrther.  \ve»  3^; 

over  to  receivers.     More  than  two  hunuird  -siiws:^-  cct- 

panies,  representing  fifty-si.x  thousand  miles-  ot  trsri  a: 

one  fourth  of  the  railway  capital  of  :::=e   caunti-    w-- 

into  the  hands  of  receivers  between  iSo.  mc  laoo.     S'n 

1893  there  has  been  comparatively  littit    .crcLse  mnmc-Li 

and  the  energies  of  railway  financiers  have  aecE  dri'ts 

to  consolidation  and  to  development  1.     he  susihe  U- 


^^^ 


^  1^"' 


QOJ 

190? 

•77 

$.01 

■99 

•g,i 

•9? 
.98 

•95 

■97 

.64 

.60 

Contemporary  Problems 


349 


The  rehabilitation  of  a  bankrupt  raih-oad  requires  time 
and  skill.     The   claims   of   bondholders  and   the  public 
served  are  met  by  a  receivership  or  by  foreclosure  sale,  and 
reorganization  under  a  new  company  which  falls  heir  to 
the  obligations  as  well  as  to  the  property  of  the  suspended 
corporation.     The  processes  of  reorganization  ha\e  given 
opportunity  for  financiers  with  reserve  capital  to  combine 
local    interests    into    a    comprehensive    railroad    system. 
Branch    lines    have    been    absorbed,    terminal    facilities 
merged,  independent  roads  bought  in,  to  the  end  that  a 
composite  trunk  line  might  dominate  the  transportation 
interests  of  a  great  section  of  the  country.     Thus  the 
Richmond  and  Danville  line  was  bought  in  at  foreclosure 
sale  by  J.  P.  Morgan  and  reorganized  as  the  Southern 
Railway,  and  the  Pennsylvania  Road  was  able  to  acquire 
much  more  effective  control  over  its  territory.     The  great 
transcontinental    lines  —  the    Santa    Fe,    the    Northern 
Pacific,  and  the  Union  Pacific  —  were  most  heavily  in-  Mitchell, 
volved  because  traffic  across  the  Cordilleran  region  had   ^'fow'^  "f 
not  as  yet  enabled  these  roads  to  meet  their  obligations.   Pacific'"" 
The  problem  in  the  case  of  the  Union  Pacific  was  to  reor- 
ganize in  such  fashion  as  to  enable  the  management  to 
meet  the  claims  of  bondholders  and  to  cancel  its  accumu- 
lated indebtedness  to  the  government..    This  was  finally 
ccomplished  in  i8q8,  the  depreciated  property  was  bought 
r.   ly  a  group  of  New  York  financiers,  and  E.  H.  Ilarri- 
maii  was  made  president  of  the  company.     He  was  known 
■  nly  as  a  successful  stockbroker,  and  much  doubt  was 
xpress<id  as  to  his  concern  for  the  traffic  interests  of  the 
■•ad.     But   Mr.    Harriman    immediately   set   about    the 
recnstruction  of  the  s}stem.     The  roadbed  was  improved, 
bra:Kh  lines  were  built  to  tap  new  industrial  centers,  the 
roiimi  stock  was  enlarged  and  brought  up  to  standard, 
and  serious  effort  was  made  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
c  r  munities   served      The  death  of    C.    P.   Huntington 
Ka\e  opportunity  for  the  purchase  of   the  Centraland 
Southern  Pacific  and  this  was  quickly  seized,  funds  being 
SLiu-ed    by   bonds   issued    against   Union    Pacific  stock. 


Davis, 
Union 
Pacific 
Railway. 


tl 


'^n 


t  ,■ 


'  \ 


r,. 


'if     I 

:!  /     I 
^  \  •  I 


350      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


%\. 


1      k 


Meyer, 
History  of 
Northern 
Securities 
Case. 


Hatfield, 
Lectures  on 
Commerce, 


Rept.  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce   Com. 
on  Intercor- 
porate Rela- 
tionships of 
Kaitways  in 
the  Unite<i 
States,    igo6< 


This  acquisition  extended  the  original  h'ne  to  San  Frar 

Cisco,  gave  control  of  the  traffic  of  the  Pacific  slope  fror 

Portland  to  Los  Angeles,  and  established  connection  wit 

El  Paso,  Houston,  and  New  Orleans.    Subsequent  pui 

chases  of  the  Oregon  Short  Line,  the  Chicago  and  Altor 

and  the  Illinois  Central  were  negotiated  by  skillful  mi 

nipulation  of   the  stock   market,  funds  being  provide 

by  mortgaging  previous  holdings.     In  the  endeavor  to  g< 

control  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington,  and  Quincy  and  so  t 

secure  a   Chicago    terminal,   Mr.   Harriman   came  int 

conflict  with  J.  J.  Hill,  the  president  of  the  Great  Northen 

who  in  combination  with  J.  P.  Morgan  had  bought 

majority  stock  interest  in  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  and  the  Northct 

Pacific.    The  laws  of  the  states  of  Minnesota  and  Wasl 

ington,  through  which  the  two  northernmost  of  the  tran 

continental  lines  pass,  forbid  the  merging  of  ownershij)  i 

parallel  and  competing  roads,  but  this  difficulty  Mr.  Hi 

hoped  to  surmount  by  the  organization  of  a  holding  co 

poration,  the  Northern  Securities  Company.    The  legalit 

of   the  devi.e  was  contested  and  an  adverse    decisif 

was  given  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United   State 

The   redistribution   of   stock  left   the   Northern   Pacil 

and  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  to  the  control  of  the  Great  Northo 

management,   but.  Harriman   secured   direct   access 

Chicago  by  the   acquisition  of  the  Chicago  and  .\ll» 

Railroad. 

The  dissolution  of  the  Northern  Securities  Compai 
has  prevented  any  farther  merging  of  parallel  lines.  1) 
the  consolidation  of  connecting  roads  into  a  continuo 
system  and  the  leasing  of  branch  lines  greatly  convenicnc 
shippers  and  the  traveling  public,  and  is  only  protest 
on  the  ground  that  so  vast  an  accumulation  of  weal 
and  power  may  transcend  government  control.  Half 
dozen  great  railway  systems  now  control  the  traffic  of  i 
whole  country.  The  Vanderbilt  lines  dominate  the  trai 
portation  interests  of  the  Northeastern  states.  The  fusi 
of  the  New  York  Central  with  the  Lake  Erie  and  V\  e-iei 
together  with  the  annexation  of  the  Michigan  Cent 


!i? 


III 


I- 


^ 


I 
I 


i  I 


I  I 


If: 


I   ., 


i 


^  .  I 


Contemporary  Problems 


35t 


and  the  Michigan  Southern,  gives  this  combination  con- 
trol of  railway  connections  between  Chicago  and  New 
York,  while  a  ninety-nine  year  lease  of  the  Boston  and 
Albany  secures  the  most  direct  entry  to  the  northern  port. 
Twelve  thousand  miles  of  track  and  seventy  thousand 
freight  cars  are  operated  under  this  management.    The 
Pennsylvania  system  monopolizes  all  the  transportation 
routes  between  Pittsburg  and  the  sea.    The  goods  to  be 
carried  are  exceptionally  bulky,  —  coal  and  coke,  iron 
and  steel  manufactures.    One  fourth  the  freight  of  the 
United  States  is  transported  by  the  Pennsylvania,  and 
two  hundred  and  fifteen  thoui^and  freight  cars  are  em- 
ployed in  its  service.    The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  and  the 
Long  Island  Railroads  have  been  brought  under  the  same 
system,  giving  a  total  mileage  of  thirteen  thousand.    The 
Gould  lines  form  the  main  arteries  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  traffic,  covering  the  territory  from  the  Gulf  to  the 
Great  Lakes,  from  the  Alleghany  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
with  a  network  of  transportation  agencies.    The  Southern 
Railway  management   has  consolidated   the   trunk  line 
from  Washington  to  Atlanta  with  the  Mobile  and  Ohio. 
These  combined  lines,  with  their  numerous  branches,  tap 
every  important  industry  of  the  South,  conveying  cotton 
from  the  "  black  belt  "  directly  to  the  mills  of  the  "  fall 
line,"  the  coal  and  the  iron  manufactures  of  the  southern 
Appalachians  to  the  factory  towns  and  to  the  ports.    The 
five  transcontinental   railroads  are   controlled   by   three 
interests.    The  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  was  suc- 
cessfully jeorganizcd  after  the  collai)se  of  the  original 
management    in    1893    and    maintains    an    independent 
status,  although  Harriman  was  admittcrl  to  its  lx)ard  of 
directors.     The  extension  of  this  line  to  San  Francisco 
establishes  direct  connection  between  Kansas  City  and 
the   most    important    ports    in    California     The    Great 
Xorthern  operates  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  Mani- 
«n''i  under  a  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  year  lease, 
and  thus  lays  hold  on  the  wheat  lands  of  the  Dakotas 
and  the  Columbia  River  basin,  the  timber  ranges  of  the 


Spearman, 
Strategy  of 
Great  Rail- 
roads, 1-173. 

Newcomb, 
Recent  Rail- 
road Com- 
binations. 

Newcomb, 
Concentra- 
tion of 
Railway 
Control. 


s. 


5 


!■ 


I  if 


*  I 


t  ' 

I 


k 


li 


■i  i  ! 

1    ! 

; 

1 

1 
1 

: 

i 

ita 

Mj 

Griffin, 
List  of  Re- 
ferences on 
Railroads, 
57-68. 


Lanier, 
Harriman 
the  Absolute. 


Meyer, 
Railway 
LeKislation, 
Pt.II.Ch.IV, 
Appendix  III. 

Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erences on 
Federal 
Control  of 
Commerce. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
IV.  i-ios, 
IX,  8Q7-g.!0. 


Stickney, 
The  Rail- 
way Problem 


352      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Cascades.  A  working  agreement  with  the  Southern  Rail 
way  enables  the  Great  Northern  to  carry  cotton  anc 
hardware  from  Alabama  to  Puget  Sound  without  trans 
shipment,  the  Chicago,  Burlington,  and  Quincy  serving  a: 
connecting  link  in  this  direct  commerce  from  sea  to  sea 
The  Harriman  system  covers  the  territory  between  th^ 
Missouri  River  and  the  Pacific  coast.  Eighteen  thousani 
miles  of  track  and  $350,000,000  of  capital  are  represente( 
in  this  vast  consolidation. 

The  panic  of  1907  gave  new  opportunity  for  the  acqii 
sition  of  railway  properties,  and  Mr.  Harriman  utilizei 
it  by  the  purchase  of  a  controlling  interest  in  the  Illinoi 
Central  and  the  Erie  Railroad  and  secured  sufficient  stoc 
"n  the  New  York  Central,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  and  th 
Missouri  Pacific  to  entitle  him  to  representation  in  thei 
management.  Since  the  death  of  this  "  wizard  of  finance, 
the  great  railway  system  built  up  by  his  genius  show 
signs  of  disintegration.  The  most  important  of  recer 
developments  is  the  so-called  Hawley  system,  which  b 
means  of  the  Rock  Island  road  and  its  extensions  doni 
nates  the  trafl&c  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  from  the  Luki 
to  the  Gulf. 

Rate    Regulation.  —  Charters    of    incorporation,    bot 
state  and  national,  and  ttie  general  incorporation  lax- 
adopted  in  lieu  of  special  charters  by  the  states,  ha\ 
done  much  to  determine  the  relations  of  the  railroad  1 
the  community  it  is  intended  to  serve.    The  franchise 
usually  granted  for  a  limited  term  and  is  revocable  c 
failure  to  comply  with  its  specifications.     Provision  f' 
the  security  and  comfort  of  passengers,  safety  appliance 
in  the  interest  of  employees,   regulations  as  to  spciv 
grade  crossings,  whistles,  signals,  etc.,  the  convenience 
time  schedules,  the  adequacy  of  accomi  lodations,  nolub 
in  freight  car  service,  —  all  these  requirements  have  bt( 
successfully  enforced.    The  pooling  of   the  interests 
competing  roads  by  maintenance  of  uniform  rates,  p;i 
celing  of  the  territory  and  distribution  of  the    traffic 
division  of  earnings,  has  been  enjoined  by  both  state  ai 


Contemporary  Problems 


353 


national  authorities,  but  without  much  avail.  The  limi- 
tation of  charges  on  passenger  and  freight  traffic,  the 
publicity  of  tariffs,  and  the  prevention  of  rebates  and  of 
discnmmations  between  shippers  and  shipping  points  are 
matters  that  even  more  deeply  concern  the  public  welfare 

The  fixing  of  rates  by  state  legislatures  was  discredited 
by  the  repeal  of  the  Granger  laws,  and  the  recent  experi- 
ence m  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  Minnesota,  and 
Missouri  has  been  even  more  discouraging.  Their  laws 
prescribing  a  two  cents  per  mile  passenger  rate  were  set 
aside  by  the  courts  on  the  ground  that  the  rates  fixed 
were  so  low  as  to  be  confiscatory  and  that  the  penalties 
proposed  for  noncompliance  were  so  severe  as  to  amount 
to  mtimidation.  In  lieu  of  direct  legislation,  some  thirty 
states  have  established  railway  commissions  authorized  to 
investigate  charges  of  discrimination  preferred  by  shippers 
and  to  secure  justice  as  to  rates,  classification  of  freight' 
distribution  of  cars,  etc.  The  exceptions  to  this  general 
practice  are  significant.  Eight  Cordilleran  states  and  two 
territories  where  the  need  of  transportation  facUides  over- 
rides every  other  consideration,  and  five  Eastern  states 
where  the  railroad  interests  rule  the  legislatures,  have  as 
yel  provided  no  supervising  commission. 

State  authority,  whether  exercised  through  limiting 
statute  or  through  railway  commissions,  regulative  or 
advisory,  has  proved  quite  inadequate  to  the  control  of 
interstate  commerce,  notably  since  the  epoch  of  consolida- 
tion. Federal  supervision  of  interstate  commerce  was 
provided  by  congressional  enactment  in  1887.  The  Cul- 
lom  law  required  full  publicity  of  rates  and  forbade  pool- 
ing as  well  as  discrimination  between  places,  r>crsons,  and 
shipments,  so  far  as  interstate  ♦mffic  is  concerned  ;  and  an 
Interstate  Commerce  CommissK  apiwinted  by  the  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  was  empowered  to  investigate 
all  charges  brought  before  it  as  to  preferential  tariffs,  re- 
bates., etc.,  and  \c^  denounce  an  unjust  rate.  The  difll- 
cultios  in  the  way  of  securing  even-handed  justice  for  the 
snipper,  the  railroad,  and  the  general  public  were  still. 


Clark,  State 

Railway 

Cumtnissiona 


Dixon,  State 
Railroad 
Control, 
Pt.   II,  III. 


James,  The 

Railway 

Quesiion. 


Meyer,  Regu- 
lation of 
Railway 
Rates, 
Ch.  IX,  X. 


Noyes, 
American 
Railroail 
Rates. 


1 1  I  :1 1. 


I  '■ 


2A 


Hi 


"if 


lllll 


J    ' 


iii'l 


[t 


J ' 


Ridlway 

Problems, 

Ch.XXIV. 

Meyer, 

Railway 

Legislation, 

Pt.  III. 

Appendix 

IV. 

Hadley, 
Workings  of 
the  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce Law. 

Kept.  Senate 
Com.  on 
Interstate 
Commerce, 
iQOS- 


Rept.  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce Com. 
on  Transpor- 
tation of 
Freights,  etc 


Youngman. 
Kconomic 
Causes  o( 
Great 
Fortunes. 


354      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

however,  many  and  great.    To  the  complexities  of  rat 

regulation  were  added  the  elusive  methods  of  discnminc 

tion  involved  in  terminal  facilities  and  private-car  servic. 

and  the  problem  has  seemed  to  transcend  the  wisdom  < 

state  and  federal  legislatures.    The  Hepburn  Amendmei 

(1Q06)  empowered  the  Commission  to  declare  a  reasoi 

ablTrate  that  should  be  binding  upon  the  transportatic 

agency  untU  set  aside  by  the  courts,  and  brought  expre^ 

companies,  sleeping  cars,  and  refrigerator  cars  under  tl 

jurisdiction  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act.    But  pot 

ing  was  extensively  practiced,  and  raUway  combinatioi 

increased  their  territory  from  year  to  year.    Both  Fre 

dent  Roosevelt   and  President  Taft   recommended  tl 

abandonment  of  the  anti-pooling  clause  of  the  law 

1887  and  the  substitution  of  a  check  on  the  acquisition 

stock  in  competing  systems.    Under  the  legislation  of  19 

the  prohibition  of  traffic  agreements  is  mamtained  and  t 

powers  of  the  Commission  are  enlarged.     Telephone  x 

telegraph  and  cable  companies  are  added  to  the  jurisci 

tion  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and  the  Lo: 

mission  is  authorized  to  investigate  the  justice  of  a  m 

tariff,  with  or  without  complaint  from  shippers,  the  opei 

tion  of  the  rates  in  question  being  suspended  during  1 

inquiry.     A  Commerce  Court  was  established  to  which  t 

decisions  of  the  Commission  might  be  appealed      N 

withstanding  persistent  legislation  and  litigation,  there 

been  an  effort  to  advance  freight  rates  in  the  past  t 

years,  occasioned,  say  the  railroad  men,  by  higher  c 

of  construction,  rolling  stock,  labor,  etc. 

Business  Monopolies 

Concentration  of  capital  in  the  hands  of  succc?: 
entrepreneurs  has  been  the  most  significant  tendency 
the  past  thirty  years  of  our  industrial  histor>'. 
wealth  of  the  Uniletl  States,  according  to  the  a-nsu. 
1900,  is  $94,300,000,000,  three  times  that  reported 
1870.     Per  capita   wealth   has   increased   from   $/^c 


Contemporary  Problems 


355 


1870  to  $1235  in  1900,  but  riches  are  less  evenly  distributed 
than  before  the  Civil  War.    In  1890  there  were  in  the 
country  approximately  four  thousand  millionaires  and  mul- 
timillionaires, whose  property  aggregated  $12,000,000,000. 
At  that  time  the  rich  numbered  9  per  cent  of  the  popula- 
tion and  held  71  per  cent  of  the  wealth;   the  well-to-do 
were  28  per  cent  of  the  population  and  owned  20   per 
cent  of  the  wealth ;  the  poor  made  up  63  per  cent  of  the 
population,  but  could  claim  only  9  per  cent  of  the  wealth 
It  is  probable  that  the  inequality  is  still  greater  now 
The  equalizing   influences   of   the   pioneer   period   have 
passed;   the  public  lands  that  may  be  cultivated  to  ad- 
vantage by  the  small  farmer  are  exhausted,  and  the  arid 
lands  of  the  West  can  be  developed  only  bv  irrigation 
companies  commanding  large  capital.     The  self-employed 
artisan  is  at  a  hopeless  disadvantage  in  competition  with 
the  machine  product,  and  the  small  enterprise  is  being 
driven  from  the  field  by  large-scale  producers.     The  mass- 
ing of  capital  and  concentration  of  industry  consequent 
on    the    introduction    of    machinery  is    evident    from 
statistics. 

The  merging  of  a  number  of  independent  concerns  into 
a  business  combination  has  been  the  especial  achievement 
of  the  entrepreneurs  of  the  present  generation.  The  ad- 
v'antages  accruing  from  wholesale  purchases  of  raw  material, 
the  conversion  of  wastes  into  by-products,  and  the  non- 
competitive marketing  of  goods,  are  so  great  that  if  the 
management  be  wise  success  seems  inevitable.  When 
there  was  added  to  these  legitimate  profits  the  advantages 
thiit  the  large  shipper  might  secure  from  transportation 
agencies  m  the  way  of  rebates,  preferential  tariffs,  and 
terminal  facilities,  the  victory  of  the  great  combination, 
when  brought  into  competition  with  the  independent 
Projlucer,  was  assured.  An  industrial  revolution,  comoa- 
rable  to  that  resulting  from  the  introduction  of  machine'ry, 
has  been  accomplished. 

Most   notable   of   the   eariier   combinations    was   the 
standard  Oil  Company.     This  group  of  Cleveland  refiners 


Holmes, 
Concentra- 
tion of 
Wealth. 


West,  The 

Public 

Domain. 

President's 

Message, 

Cong. 

Record, 

XXXVI. 

Pt.  I,  n. 


Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  I-IV. 


i'' 


i 


*'\ 


i:! 


356      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Cotton  Manufactures 


n. 


[.! 


If! 


i  I 


\  , 


ti' 


f 


U.S.  Census, 

IQOO,  IX, 

27. 


U.S.  Census, 
/goo,  X, 
344- 


Year 


1840 
1850 
i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


No.  or  Es- 

TABUSHMENTS 


CAPrrAi,  PER      Spindies 

ESTAB.  PER   ESTAB. 


1,240 

$     4I>292 

1,094 

69,74s 

1,091 

90,362 

956 

147,182 

756 

275. S03 

90s 

391.183 

973 

473.631 

1,842 

4.799 

7.461 

14,092 

IS.677 
19.S36 


Wage 

Earners 

PER  Estab. 


Prodic  t 

PER  Estab 


S8 

%   37,37 

84 

56.55 

112 

106,03 

142 

185,65 

231 

254.08 

242 

296,12 

306 

342,04 

Manufactures  of  Agricultural  Implements 


V'ear 


1850 
i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


No.  OF 

Establish- 


Capital  per 


UENTS 

CSTAB. 

1,333 

$2,674 

2,116 

6,SS3 

2,076 

16,780 

1,943 

31,966 

910 

159,686 

715 

220,571 

No.  OP  Wage 

Earners  per 

Estab. 

Vau'e  0 

Product  r 

Estab. 

S 
8 

$5-i.^ 
9M 

12 

25. 0'' 

20 
43 
65 

35-.^ 

89 -.^c 

141  •  5- 

1  : 

II 


I    -I 


i  i 

t    I 

i 


U.S.  Census, 

10  U),  IX, 
,^87,  4«2- 
4;i. 


Slaughtering  and  Meat  Packing 


Year 


1850  . 
i860  . 
1870  . 
s.»«o  . 
1890  . 
T900  . 


No.  OF 

Establish- 

uents 


I8S 
259 
768 
872 
1,118 
921 


Capital  per 
Estab. 


$    18,824 

39,221 

31.543 
56.673 

104.551 
205,427 


No.  OF 

Wage 

Earners  pf.r 

Estab. 


18 
20 
II 
31 
39 
74 


Vai.vk  ' 

Prodkt 

Estab 


$    64,7 

1 13' 'I 

98.7 

348.1 

50-^-3 
85i.q 


Contemporary  Problems  337 

undertook  to  secure,  not  only  the  advantages  of  whole- 
sale manufacture,  but  control  of  the  crude  oil  market  and 
of  the   transportation   facilities   as   well.    In    1870   the 
Standard  was  one  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  oU  refineries 
and  Its  product  was  only  four  per  cent  of  the  total  output' 
In  1877  It  controlled  95  per  cent  of  the  oU  refined  in  the 
Umted   States.    The  strenuous  opposition   of   crude  oil 
producers  and  independent  refiners  induced  in   1882  a 
completer  fusion  of  the  Standard  interests.     The  forty 
affiliated  companies  made  over  their  respective  properties 
to  a  body  of  trustees,  receiving  in  exchange  trust  certifi- 
cates pro  rata  for  the  stock  surrendered.    The  business 
was  thereafter  managed  by  the  nine  trustees,  and  all 
possibility  of  variations  in  policy  was  done  away     The 
arrangement  was  entirely  successful  so  far  as  control  of 
Uie  industry  was  concerned.     Large-scale  production  ren- 
dered profitable  scientific  processes  of  manufacture,  im- 
provement in  quality,   and   reductions  in   selling  price 
that  could  never  have  been  brought  about  by  the  hand- 
to-mouth  methods  in  vogue  in  the  oil  fields. 

The  success  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  suggested 
similar  combinations  in  other  lines  of  business.    The  sugar 
refiners,    the    whisky   distillers,    the    manufacturers    of 
tobacco,  salt,  steel,  tin  plate,  etc.,  pooled  their  interests 
in  more  or  less  successful  combinations.    Most  of  the 
industnes  requiring  large  capital   and  affording  oppor- 
unity  for   monopoly  of  output  or  of  raw  material  at- 
tempted to  organize  on   a  noncompetitive   basis  during 
the  ast  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.     Some  three 
hundred  different  industries,  representing  a  capitalization 
ot  «7,246,ooo,ooo,    were   so   organized   under   corporate 
charters  during  this  period.    Faith  in  the  efliciency  of 
combination  reached  its  climax  in  the  vears  from  1898  to 
1902   when  industrial  alliances  were  formed  with  small 
regard  for  legitimate  basis  of  profits.    Promoters   and 
speculato,^  took  advantage  of  the  craze  for  combination, 
and  toisted  all  manner  of  dubious  and  fraudulent  schemes 
upon  the  mvesting  public.    The  "  sUent  panic  "  of  1903 


Montague, 
Rise  and 
Progress 
of  the 
Standard 
Oil  Com- 
pany. 

Tarbell,  The 
Standard 
Oil  Com- 
pany. 

Dodd, 
Trusts. 
Moody, 
Truth  about 
the  Trusts, 
109-132. 
Kept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
I.  93-173- 


Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
Ch.  I,  II. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com. 

I.  %^2Si. 

Jenks, 

Michigan 

Salt  Ass'n. 

Jenks,  The 

Whisky 

Trust. 

Moody, 

Trusts, 

485-489. 

U.S.  Census, 
IQOO,  VII, 
Ixxv-btxxi. 
Sammis, 
Industrial 
Combina- 
tion. 


'  ■» 


I 


it.! 
N  1 


i«i 


i 


t  I 


I  ' 


Lanier, 
Ore  Trust, 
etc. 

Edgerton, 
Wire  Nail 
Ass'n. 

Youngman, 

Tobacco 

Pools. 

Moody, 

Trusts, 

478-482. 

Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
Ch.  III. 

Kept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
I,  39-57.  74 

-gs,  199-MS ; 

xiii,lviii-lxiv. 

Wright, 
The  Amalga- 
mated Ass'n. 

Rept.  on 
the  Anthra- 
cite Coal 
Strike,  1902. 

Roberts, 
Anthracite 
Coal 

Industry, 
183-191- 
Rept.  on  the 
Beef  In- 
dustry, 
Ch.  IV. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
I,  136-143- 


358      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

called  a  halt  in  many  adventurous  projects,  but  the  progre; 
of  centralized  control  was  not  retarded. 

Meantime,  the  outside  public  has  found  reason  to  con 

plain  of  the  effects  of  industrial  monopoly.    Ci>nsumc 

protest  against  an  advance  in  prices  inconsistent  wit 

diminished  cost  of  production  and  not  warranted  by  in 

proved  quaUty  of   goods.    The  whisky  trust,  the   pla 

glass  combination,  and  the  wire  naU  pool,  for  exampl 

each  has  utUized  its  temporary  monopoly  of  the  mark 

to  force  prices  far  beyond  their  normal  level.    The  pr 

ducers  of  raw  material,  the  crude  oU  men,  the  tobaci 

growers,  the  cattlemen,  etc.,  are  helpless  when  they  ha 

no  choice  but  to  sell  to  the  agent  of  a  combmation,  ai 

they  denounce  the  monopoly  that  reduces  their  retur 

to  the  bare  cost  of  production.     Laborers,  brought  fa 

to  face  with  a  combination,  can  have  no  recourse  to  a 

other  employer,  and  they  are  driven  to  organize  a  count 

combination,  equally  monopolistic,  and  to  attempt  to  w 

fair  terms  by  an  artificial  shortage  in  the  labor  suppl 

The  strike  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  a 

Steel  Workers  against  the  United  States  Steel  Corpoi 

tion  is  a  crse  in  point.    The  endeavor  of  the  men 

secure  the  union  scale  of  wages  in  all  the  plants  represent 

in  the  combination  faUed  because  they  had  a  strike  fu 

of  but  $32,000  to  oppose  to  the  resources  of  a  billu 

dollar  trust.    The  Anthracite  Coal  Syndicate  has  bt 

more  successfully  opposed  by  the  United  Mine  Workt 

an  organized  body  of  145.00°  i"en.    In  two  success 

strikes  (1900  and   1902)  they  have  secured  an  advai 

of  wages  for  master  miners,  reduction  of  hours  for  t 

laborers,   and  the  practical  recognition  of  the  justice 

collective  bargaining. 

The  independent  producers,  moreover,  both  the  la 
concerns  that  refused  to  enter  the  combination  and 
small  industries  that  were  weak  enough  to  be  ignor 
have  fared  badly  at  the  hands  of  the  monopolies.  1 
power  to  regulate  prices  has  been  used  to  drive  c( 
petitors  from  both  central  and  local  markets.    The  wr 


Contemporary  Problems  359 

of  such  enterprises  has  meant  the  closing  of  plants,  the 
disemployment  of  workmen,  and  the  waste  of  entrepreneur 
ability.  The  vehement  criticism  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  occasioned  by  the  unsparing  and  unscrupulous 
zeal  with  which  independent  refiners  were  cleared  from  the 
field,  provoked  the  endeavor  to  prevent  industrial  monopoly 
by  state  interference. 

Anti-trust  Legislation.  —  Public  protest  first  took  the 
form  of  prohibitive  legislation.     During  the  years  1889  to 
1894.    twenty-five   states   and    territories   enacted   laws 
making  the  trust  unlawful,  and  the  Federal  law  of  1891 
declared  "  every  contract,  combination  in  the  form  of  a 
trust  or  otherwise,  or  conspiracy,  in  restraint  of  trade  or 
commerce  among  the  several  states  "  illegal  and  its  pro- 
moters punishable  by  fine  or  imprisonment.    The  Standard 
Oil  Trust  dissolved  into  twenty  distinct  companies,  but, 
smce  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  each  company  was  held  by 
one  or  another  of  the  original  trustees,  identity  of  interest 
was  perpetuated.     The  Sugar  Trust  reorganized  as  the 
Amencan  Sugar  Refining  Company,  a  mammoth  corpora- 
tion of  $50,000,000,  which  bought  in  the  stock  of  the  con- 
stituent companies.     The  W  hisky  Trust   incorporated  as 
the  Distilling  and  Cattlefeeding  Company,  a  single  cor- 
poration with  a  capital  of  $35,000,000,   etc.     In   every 
case,  combination  was  quite  as  effective  under  the  new 
form. 

The  general  endeavor  to  impose  stringent  i-equirements 
m  the  way  of  corporate  limitations  has  been  negarived  by 
the  indulgent   policy   of    certain   states,  —  New   Jersey 
Delaware,  and  West  Virginia.     Light   incorporation  fees' 
and  taxes,  the  absence  of  specifications  as  to  character  of 
business  or  amount  of  capital  stock,  the  secrecy  possible 
under  lax  administration,  have  rendered  these  three  states 
an  asylum  for  monopolistic  corporations.     Ninety-five  per 
cent  of  existing  corporations  hold  charters  in  one  or  an- 
other of  these  jurisdictions.    A  company  incorporated  in 
one  state  of  the  Union  is  at  liberty  to  carry  its  produce 
into  every  other  state ;  hence  nothing  short  of  a  Federal 


Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  IX. 


Lloyd, 
Wealth  V3. 
Common- 
wealth. 

Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  XI. 

.Slicrman, 
11,1071-1076. 

Rept.  In- 
diist.  Com., 
II. 


Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
Ch.  V,  VI. 


Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erences 
Relating  to 
Trusts. 

Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
162-174. 

Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 

Ch.  xiri. 


fcsr 


3S 


!J 


.[   • 


F  '     ^^' 

f 

S-, 

I' 

! 

s  ■ 

Knox,  The 
Sherman 
Anti-trust 
Act. 


Whitney, 
The  Addy- 
ston  Pipe 
Co. 

Harlan, 
Decision 
of  the 
Supreme 
Court  of 
the  U.S. 


360      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

incorporation  law  can  prevent  injurious  combinations, 
bill  drafted  by  Attorney-General  Wickersham  and  su 
mitted  to  Congress  in  1910  provides  that  companies 
more  than  $100,000  capitalization  may  incorporate  und 
Federal  law.  Advocates  of  the  measure  believe  that  t 
additional  prestige  accruing  from  a  congressional  chart 
and  the  immunity  from  state  regulation  will  induce  t 
well-established   industries    to    take    advantage    of   tl 

privilege. 

The  effort  to  penalize  restraint  of  trade  has  been  m( 

successful.    Contracts  aiming  to  curtail  production  or 

fix  buying  or  selling  prices  violate  the  common  law  a 

are  nonenforceable.    Statutes  defining  this  offense  a 

affixing  pains  and  penalties  have  been  passed  by  so 

thirty  states,  but  the  transaction  usually  transcends  st; 

jurisdiction.     Under  the  Federal  Anti-trust  Act   (i8g 

"  every  person  who  shall  monopolize  or  attempt  to  mono] 

lize  .  .  .  any  part  of  the  trade  or  commerce  among 

several  states  "  is  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  £ 

liable  to  fine  or  imprisonment,  the  goods  in  course 

transportation  are  forfeited,  and  the  injured   party  n 

recover  threefold  damages  and  the  costs  of  suit.    1 

attorney-general  and  the  United  States  district  attorn 

are  authorized  to  institute  proceedings  against  unlav 

combinations  in  restraint  of  trade.    Most  notable  of 

anti-monopolistic  decisions  are  those  against  the  Ad 

ston  Pipe  Company,  the  Northern  Securities  Compa 

the  beef   packers'   combination,  and   the  Standard 

Company. 

The  Bureau  of  Corporations,  established  (1903)  un 
the  United  States  Department  of  Commerce  and  Lai 
is  authorized  to  make  "  diligent  investigation  into  the 
ganizarion,  conduct,  and  management  of  the  business  of 
corporation,  joint  stock  company,  or  corporate  comb 
tion  engaged  in  commerce  among  the  several  states  . 
and  to  gather  such  information  and  data  as  will  enable 
president  of  the  United  States  to  make  recommendal 
to  Congress  for  legislation  for  the  regulation  of  su.:  ^ 


Contemporary  Problems 


361 


merce."  The  immediate  outcomes  of  this  provision  are  the 
reports  on  the  beef  industry,  the  petroleum  industry,  the 
tobacco  combinations,  the  lumber  trade,  etc. 


m\ 


The  Organization  of  Labor 

The  Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  founded 
in  1869  by  a  group  of  Philad'-Iphia  garment  cutters  in  the 
hope  of  uniting  all  wage  earners  into  one  catholic  body, 
without  regard  to  occupation,  sex,  creed,  color,  or  nation- 
ahty.     Not   until    1881,    however,    when    the   pledge   of 
secrecy  was  set  aside,  did  the  society  attain  national  im- 
portance.   The   membership   in    1881    was    500,000,    in 
1886,  1,200,000.     The  objects  proposed  by  this  all-em- 
bracing organization  were  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor  to  eight  per  day,  the  securing  of  protective  legisia- 
Uon  for  laborers  in   factory,   mine,   and   workshop,   the 
recognition  of  employers'  liability  for  accidents,  a  weekly 
pay  lay,  the  making  of  wages  a  first  lien  on  product,  the 
arbitration  of  labor  disputes,  the  establishment  of  state 
and  national  labor  bureaus,  the  single  tax  on  land,  etc. 
The  degradation  of  American  workingmen  by  the  employ- 
ment of  convicts  in  competition  with  free  labor  and  by 
the  importation  of  laborers   under  wage  contract,   was 
protested  as  vigorously  as  was  the  slave  system 'by  a 
former  generation  of  reformers.     In  its  motto,  "  An  injury 
to  one  is  the  concern  of  all,"  and  in  its  appeal  to  the 
ballot  for  redress  of  wrongs,  the  Knights  of  Labor  may 
be  compared  to  the  Workingmen's  party.     Their  organi- 
zation by  local,  district,  and  general  assemblies  was,  how- 
ever, more  effective  than  that  of  any  previous  labor  mo\c- 
ment,  since  it  admitted  representative  government.     The 
Knights  did    not  inaugurate  a  -ew  political  party,  biL 
voted  with  Republicans  or  Democrats  or  PopulistN   as 
men  and  measures  might  determine,  and  thev  uttained 
conskierable  influence  with  legislative  bodies.     The  estab- 
lishment of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Lal)or  and  of 
several  state  boards  of  arbitration,  legislation  restricting 


Wright, 
Hist.  Sketch 
of  the 
Knights  of 
Labor. 

Wright, 
Indust. 
Evol.  of 
U.S., 
Ch.  XIX. 

McNeill, 
Ch.  XV. 


Powderiy, 
Ch.    IV,    V, 
VI,  XIII. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com.. 
III. 


Kirk, 

Knights  of 
Labor  and 
.American 
Federation 
of  Labor. 


Levasseur, 
American 
Workman, 
197-203. 

Powdorly, 
Ch.  VII. 


Rept.  In- 
dust. Com  , 
VII,   Pt.   I, 

('7-87. 


I 


'  i 


i 


*■  ' 


I    i\ 


Hi 


li 


!i  i 


Rept.  Ford 
Com.  on 
Contract 
Labor,  1888. 


Taussig, 
The  South- 
western 
Strike. 
Rept.  In- 
dus!. Com., 
VII,  Pt.  I, 
109-110. 


Wright, 
Indust. 
Evol.of  U.S., 
Ch.XX. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VII, 

Pt.I,io8-ioq, 
Pt.  II, 
4JO-440. 


Levasseur, 
303-aii. 


362      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  labor  of  women  and  children  and  requiring  biweekl; 
payment  of  wages,  the  Federal  laws  prohibiting  the  im 
portation  of  contract  labor  and  limiting  the  immigratioi 
of  Chinese,  were  in  good  measure  due  to  the  agitatioi 
carried  on  by  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

While  their  characteristic  method  was  legislation,  th 
Knights  did  not  abjure  coercion.  Several  strikes  wer 
conducted  to  a  successful  finish  by  aid  of  a  tax  levied  0 
the  whole  membership,  but  the  disastrous  strike  of  tli 
employees  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  Railroad  (1886)  greati 
discredited  the  order  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  and  pa\ 
rise  to  internal  dissensions  that  undermined  its  strensti 
In  1896  the  Knights  of  Lalwr  joined  in  the  agitation  fc 
free  coinage  of  silver,  and  the  failure  of  the  Democrat 
party  farther  diminished  its  influence.  Its  membersh 
has  declined  to  but  a  fraction  of  its  former  strength. 

The  American  Federation  of  Ubor  originated  in  a  cor 

bination  of  already  existing  unions,  such  as  the  Intt 

national  Typographical,  the  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  t! 

Cigar  Makers,  the  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joinci 

the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers,  etc.    In  iS.*> 

the  year  of  its  origin,  the  American  Federation  of  Lab 

represented  262,000  wage  earners ;   in  1886  the  memlx 

hip  was  316,000;  in  1887,  600,000,  and  at  last  accou 

ihe  membership  exceeded  1,500.000  men.     In  distinct! 

from  the  Knights  of  Labor,   the  American  Federati 

encourages    organization    along    trade    lines.    It    is 

affiliation  of  national  unions  in  which  each  society  ret  a 

full  autonomy.    The  annual  conventions  and  the  Kxc( 

tive  Council  make  general  regulations  and  recommitu 

tions,  but  these  have  no  binding  authority  oyer  the 

dividual  trade  organizations.    In  case  a  strike  is  appn)> 

by  the  Executive  Council,  financial  aid  may  be  ordc 

and  the  federated  unions  assessed  for  a  limited  pin 

The  possibility  that  aid  may  be  withheld   has    u<ui 

served  to  dctor  the  unions  from  undertaking  unwarraii 

strikes.    The  influence  of  the  Executive  Council  and 

President  Gompers  has  been  generally  conservati\ c  ; 


Contemporary  Problems 


363 


the  American  Federation  has  consistenUy  avoided  political 
complications,  refusing  to  declare  for  or  against  socialism 
smgle  tax,  free  coinage  of  silver,  etc.,  and  refraining  from 
any  attempt  to  dictate  to  its  members  politically.  The 
leaders  have  held  to  the  declared  purpose  of  the  organiza- 
Uon  "  to  render  employment  and  the  means  of  subsistence 
less  precarious  by  securing  to  the  toilers  an  equitable 
share  of  the  fruits  of  their  toil." 

.1  l^S'^cf  ?**'^"-  ~  °"'  °^  ^^^  ^^^  undertakings  of  the  sixteenth 

United  btates  Commissioner  of  Labor  was  the  collection  Annual 

of  accurate  information  concerning  the  causes  and  results  '^•''-  *^°"' 

of  all  the  strikes  tha.  had  occurred  in  course  of  the  nine-  o/lXT 

'      th  century.    The  report  of  1887,  extended  in  1894,  ^"^  ^■ 

i«yOi,  and  1906,  gives  full  statistical  data  for  the  vears  ^~''''  ^*"''« 

from  1881  to  late.  ^  StatisUcs. 


.  \.    \ 


Strike  Statistics,  1881-1900 


\'ka« 


1881  . 

188.' 

i88,^ 
1884 
1885 
i88<) 
1SS7 
1888 
188,)  . 
i8qo  . 
iSgi  . 
i8qi  . 
i8o,S  . 


Number 

451 

454 

478 

44.S 

64s 

1. 43  J 

1.436 

906 

'.07s 

'.833 

1. 717 

I.:48 

'.305 


Propobtion; 

■il'CCESSrUL 


Per  Cent 

6137 
S3S9 
58- '7 
5 1  SO 
5i-8o 
34-45 
45  •64 

46.49 

5^-65 
37-88 

30-31 
50.8ft 


Vea« 


1894 

189s 
1896 

1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1004 

'yo5 


NUMBEt 


'.340 


PlOPORTION 

SucTEssruL 


Per  Cent 
38.09 


1,215 

55-24 

1,026 

59-19 

1,078 

57-3' 

1,056 

64.19 

1,797 

73-24 

1,779 

46-43 

2,924 

48.77 

3,161 

47-31 

3.494 

40.87 

■?,307 

35-28 

2,077 

40.17 

Statistical 
Abstract. 
i9og, 
241-247- 


During  the  twenty-five  year  period  there  were  reported  Levaweur. 
3C).7.S7  strikes,  involving  6,728,048  employees,  doubtless  a  "'-^J^ 
'"•ucn  iarger  quota  than  any  previous  period  could  show, 
'fere  full  data  available.     It   is  significant  that  strikes 


i 


:  is 

! 


II 


1 

ll 


*. 


■ 

1  'i 

1 

i        !■ 

'  i 

?  : 

5 

L      . 

J 

' 

-1^      " 

6 

1 

^ 

i 

« 

'.■ 

3 

uim 

4 

IJ 

1 

it 

imL, 

i 

CaMon, 

Organized 

SeU-help. 


Foster, 
Trade 
Union 
Ideals. 


Rcpt.  U.S. 
Strike  Com- 
mission, I  Sg4. 

WriK>it, 
The  Chicago 
Strike, 


364      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

characterize  the  years  of  business  prosperity,  e.g.  1889- 
1891  and  1899-1903.  The  larger  number  of  lockouts,  01 
the  other  hand,  took  place  in  years  of  depression,  e.g.  1881 
and  1893,  1903  and  1904. 

The  proposition  that  strikes  are  likely  to  succeed  on 

rising  and  faU  on  a  falling  market  may  be  demonstrate 

from  these  data.    The  proportion  of  successful  strikes  \va 

57  per  cent  for  the  boom  period  1881-1883,  and  for  th 

highly  prosperous  ei^och,  1S96-1900,  the  successful  stnkt 

were  60  per  cent  of  the  total.    In  the  years  of  depressic 

following  on  financial  panic  there  is,  on  the  other  hand 

notable  shrinkage  in  the  proportion  of  successes     Tl 

figures  show,  farther,  an  apparent  increase  m  the  chano 

of  success.    Of  the  1500  strikes  recorded  for  the  hr 

eighty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  results  a 

known  for  1053.    Of  these,  30  per  cent  were  successfi 

15  per  cent  were  compromised,  and  55  per  cent  were  n 

successful.    Of  3902  strikes  occurring  from  1881  to  iScH 

46.5  per  cent  were  successful,  13  per  rent  were  partial 

successful,  and  40  per  cent  failed.     For  the  twenty  yet 

from  1881-1900,  51  i>er  cent  were  successful,  13  per  cc 

partially  so,  and  36  per  cent  failed.     Since  1901,  theme 

prosperous  year  of  the  present  decade,  the  proportion 

success  has  declined. 

With  experience  and  the  sense  of  enlarged  responsibih 
trade  unions  have  learnetl  caution,  and  a  well-disciplir 
union  will  undertake  a  strike  only  when  success  is  reus< 
ably  sure.    The  money  cost  of  a  strike  is  usually  gna 
for  the  men  than  for  the  employer.    The  loss  in  wages 
strikes  for  the  period  1881-1900  was  $258,000,000,  m 
than  twice  the  losses  accruing  to  employers,  while 
assistance  rendered  by  other  labor  organizations  dur 
the  same  period  amounted  to  $16,000,000.    The  ir 
union  with  no  strike  fund  has  slight  endurance, 
treasury  of  even  well-established  organizations  is  ciuic 
exhausted,  and  contributions  from  outside  sympathi 
are  not  a  j^ermanent  reliance.    The  employer,  on 
other  hand,  has,  in  these  days  ».t  combination,  a  U 


Contemporary  Problems 


36s 


i  m 


reserve  capital ;  and,  while  he  will  avoid  a  strike  and  the 
losses  and  embarrassments  in  the  way  of  unfilled  orders, 
etc.,  whenever  possible,  the  controversy,  once  brought  to 
an  issue,  will  be  fought  to  a  finish.  The  Pullman  strike 
demonstrated  that  employer  as  well  as  employee  will  take 
heavy  risks  in  defense  of  a  cherished  principle. 

Where  intelligence  and  fairness  characterize  both  em- 
ployer and  employed,  the  collective  bargain  is  advantageous 
to  both  parties.    Since  the  settlement  of  the  strike  of 
1897,  delegates  of  the  bituminous  coal  miners  have  met 
the  operators  in  annual  conference  for  the  adjustment  oi 
a  wage  scale  affecting  four  hundred  thousand  men     The 
anthraate  miners  attained  the  same  result  only  after  two 
bitterly   contested   strikes    and   the   intervention   of  an 
Arbitration  Commission  appointed  by  President  Roose- 
velt.   As  individuals  the  men  are  helpless,  and  they  can 
only  treat  on  even  terms  with  the  large-scale  employer 
w-hen   umted   in   demanding   uniform    terms.    The   em- 
ployer, on  the  other  hand,  has  more  security  in  dealing 
with  an  organized  than  with  an  unorganized  body  of  men. 
It  IS  essential  to  the  success  of  the  collective  bargain  that 
the  terms  of  employment  be  guaranteed  by  written  con- 
tract, and  that  breach  of  agreement  on  either  side  be 
made  punishable  by  fine.     The  proposition  to  increase  the 
responsibility  of  trade  unions  by  legal  incorporation  has 
been  urged  as  a  means  of  proxading  for  the  enfoi cement 
of  ihe  labor  contract. 

Criticism  of  Trade  Union  Methods.  —  Aside  from  the 
inevitable  antagonism  of  interest  between  employer  and 
employed,  opposition  to  labor  organizations  arises  from 
certain  of  the  means  used  in  prosecuting  their  ends  that 
fniiR  them  into  conflict  with  outside  parties.  Hostility 
0  strike  breakers,  for  example,  has  frequently  taken  the 
'orm  of  persecution,  belligerent  picketing,  and  bodily 
Wk.ice.  Injury  wrought  to  person  or  propertv  sir\cs 
to  brinj?  the  union  under  condemnation  nf  puhhc  opi-?nn 
wd  of  the  law.  Order  must  be  restored  by  ,,<,lice  au- 
«onty.  and,  when  this  fails,  bv  the  intervention  i)f  state 


Schloss, 
Rept.  of 
Chicago 
Strike  Com- 
mission. 


George, 
Coal  Millers' 
Striice,  1897. 

Rept.   In- 
dust.  Com., 
VII, 

Pt.1, 106-108, 
Pt.  II, 

820-827. 
See  Index. 

Rept.  .An- 
thracite Coal 
Strike    Com- 
mission, igo2. 


Brandeis 
ft  al., 
Incorpora- 
tion of 
Trades 
Unions. 


Stimson, 

Handbook 

to  Labor 

Laws  of 

US.. 

Ch.  VIII. 

Mitchell. 

Organized 

Labor, 

172-.J37- 


!■;: 


i  ■:, 


<    ' 


,M 


I; 


'il 


t     ! 

1     1 


'      !  i 

!  i  I 


.,     .^      11: 


M     \ 


h 


Levasseur, 
a4O-2S0- 

Taussig, 
The  Home- 
stead Strike. 

Bemis,  The 
Homestead 
Strike. 

Stimaon, 
Ch.  IX. 

Mitchell, 
Organiied 
Labor,  Ch. 

xxxvn 

Indust.  Com. 
XII, 

LXXXV-CV. 

Hall.  Sym- 
pathetic 
Strikes  and 
Lockouts. 


Levasaeur, 

237-240. 


Yarros, 

Questions' 

Newer 

Aspect. 


366      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

and  even  national  troops;  but  breach  of  the  law  on  the 
part  of  employers  is  equally  to  be  condemned.    The  em- 
ployment of  Pinkerton  men  as  a  private  police  force  has 
been  declared  a  penal  offense  by  several  state  legislatures. 
The  boycotting  of  obdurate  employers,     scab  laborers, 
and  nonsympathizers  who  patronize   boycotted  concerns 
is  the  frequent  resort  of  a  striking  union  hard  bestead 
This  is  a  dangerous  weapon,  since  it  aUenates  public  sym 
nathy  .-^nd  may  involve  the  union  in  legal  controversies 
The  writ  of  injunction  has  been  utUized  by  employers  t( 
forestall  attacks  on  person  or  property,  and  it  is  some 
times  the  only  means  of  maintaining  peace,  as  m  the  cas 
of  the  Coeur  d'Alene  miners'  strike;   but  this  again  is 
weapon  that  is  likely  to  infringe  on  the  rights  of  citizen^ 
The  sympathetic  strike  is  another  form  of  trade  unio 
tactics,  the  fairness  of  which  is  hotly  disputed     Withoi 
grievance  of  its  own  or  any  hope  of  gain,  a  labor  un.o 
may  order  a  strike  in  supi>ort  of  the  contention  of  a 
allied  organization.    The  fact  that  this  may  be  an  act . 
self-sacrifice  performed  in  the  interest  of  brotherhood  ar 
the  general  welfare  of  labor  does  not  mitigate  the  mjus^tu 
to  the  employer,  who  is  involved  in  a  controversy  in  whi( 
he  has  no  concern,  the  arbitrament  of  which  he  cann 
influence.    Thus  the  American  Railway  Union  struck 
sympathy  with  the  Pullman  Car  Company's  employee 
and  involved  the  traffic  of  Chicago  and  the  Middle  \\e 
in  a  disastrous  tie-up  ,  thus  the  Chicago  Teamsters  Um; 
refused  to  carry  goods  for  a  mercantile  establishment  1 
volved  in  a  Garment  Workers'  strike,  and,  by  consequen( 
for  the  business  houses  that  had  dealings  with  the  hr 
cotted  firm;    and  thus  the  organized  trades  of  1  hi 
delphia  stopped  w-rk  in  sympathy  with  the  striking  str( 
car  employees.    The  failure  of  these  protracted  strutrg 
must  tend  to  convince  labor  leaders  that  the  sympathc 
strike  should  only  be  undertaken  as  a  lust  resort. 

The  right  or  wrong  =^f  the  union  or  closed  shop  I 
been  vigorously  debated  in  recent  years.  A  fully  esti 
lishcd  labor  organization  will  always  endeavor  to  excii 


'T^^Wfe';-"  ^  «l£2!S»  ^^:&»> 


Contemporary  Problems 


1^7 


nonunion  men  from  the  shops  under  its  control.  This 
policy  is  essential  to  the  labor  monopoly  on  which  the 
union  depends  for  the  enforcement  of  the  uniform  wage 
and  other  regulations ;  but  it  is  protested  by  the  employer 
on  the  ground  that  the  management  of  his  business  is 
thereby  taken  out  of  his  hands.  Only  when,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  cigar  workers,  the  union  is  able  to  offer  as 
offset  a  trade  label  that  has  market  value,  is  the  point 
readily  conceded.  The  closed  shop  is  said  to  be  un- 
American  and  undemocratic,  in  that  it  forces  workmen  to 
enter  the  union  in  order  to  obtain  employment ;  but  the 
trade  unionist  holds  that  a  man  has  no  right  to  enjoy  the 
advantages  in  the  way  of  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours 
secured  by  union  effort  who  will  contribute  nothing  to  the 
funds  and  fighting  strength  of  the  organization.  The 
sewing  trades  are  peculiariy  liable  to  incur  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  ncaunion  labor,  because  theirs  is  an  unskilled 
trade,  perennially  over\vhelmed  by  immigrant  laborers 
accustomed  to  a  low  standard  of  living  and  ready  to 
work  for  any  pay.  In  spite  of  the  persistent  endeavor  of 
many  years,  the  Garment  Workers  have  not  yet  attained 
general  victory  for  the  union  shop  and  the  union  label. 

Employers'  Associations.  —  An  inevitable  consequence 
of  the  more  efficient  organization  of  labor  has  been  the 
combination  of  employers  into  a  defensive  alliance.  The 
first  labor  union  attempted  in  Boston  brought  about 
(1825)  a  union  of  Boston  merchants,  who  pledged  them- 
selves to  "  drive  the  shipwrights,  caulkers,  and  gravers  to 
submission  or  starvaUon,"  and  pledged  $20,000  as  a  fight- 
ing fund.  In  1832  one  hundred  and  six  merchants  and 
shipowners  of  Boston  agreed  to  "discountenance  and 
check  the  unlawful  combination  formed  to  control  the 
reednm  of  individuals  as  to  the  hours  of  labor."  In  1872 
four  hundred  employers  of  New  York  City  organized  to 
^»st  the  ten-hour  movement,  agreeing  to  contribute 
iTooo  «:^ch  to  the  defense  fund,  and  in  1884  the  Master 
Builders  Association  of  New  York  was  organized  to  resist 
a  bricklayers'  strike.    A  dozen  or  more  national  associa- 


Commons 
tt  al..  Union 
Shop  Policy. 

Levasseur, 
215-217. 

White, 
The  Union 
Shop. 

Pfahler, 
Free  Shops. 
Rapt.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
VII,  Ft.  II, 
715-722 
See  Index. 

Brooks, 
The  Trade 
Union 
Label. 
Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
VII,  Ft.  I, 
181  -iSq. 
Index  to 
Ft   II. 

Hutchinson, 
Shirt  Waiat 
Makers' 
Strike. 
Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
VII.  Ft.  II, 
828-87J. 
Andrews, 
Develop- 
ment of  Flm- 
ployers"  As- 
sociations. 

Luther, 
WorkinKmen 
of  New 
England,  7. 


i!    11 


ti.     i 


V  I; 


I  '4 1 


I 


I 


:i 


\l*: 


I  -ft 


u 


i      !      ! 


h  . 


ill. 


Levasseur, 
217-224. 

Adams  and 

Sumner, 

Labor 

Problems, 

279-286. 


368      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

tions  of  the  employers  of  the  various  trades  were  set  01 

foot  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  11 

1903    several   national   associations   united   to   form   Ih 

Citizens  Industrial  Association  of  America,  which  comprise 

sixty  national  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-five  loca 

organizations.     The  objects  of  this  federation  of  employer: 

unions,  as  published,  are  to  assist  the  constituted  author 

ties  in  the  maintenance  of  order,  to  promote  and  er 

courage   harmonious    relations   between   employers   an 

employees  on  a  basis  of  equal  justice  to  both,  to  assi! 

employers  in  their  efforts  to  maintain  industrial  peac 

and  to  create  a  public  sentiment  in  opposition  to  all  forn 

of   violence,    coercion,    and   intimidation.     The    Citizei 

Industrial  Association  does  not  deny  the  beneficent  pos< 

bilities  of  labor  organization  nor  the  advantages  of  arbitr 

tion  and  collective  bargaining,  but  proposes  to  comb 

the  abuses  of  trade  unionism  as  represented  m  arbitra 

and    violent    action.    Reassuring    evidence    of    a   mo 

rational  relation  between  labor  and  capital  may  be  foui 

in  the  voluntary  advance  of  wages  recently  made  by  sevci 


_H>Utl«l  Howl  v«r  WttI 


R.iallv*  Uttill  P'loM  ol  ra**  W^lgtilt* 

AOGOrdlng  to  Avttag*  Coniumrtlan 
In  3607  Wsrkiniiman'i  FtmlllM. 


;     » 


Contemporary  Problems 


369 


eastern  railway  companies  and  by  the  United  States  Steel 
Corf>oration. 


Ir 

w 

'06  'o; 

^ 

/ 

/ 

-            l^H 

h 

•    132 

130 

-    1*8 

^ 

/ 

-  1!6 

-  12< 
122 

-  120 

-  118 
116 

■1   lU 
_    112 

-  110 

-  lOJ 
IM 

-  I0< 
-    101 

i  100 
1    96 

/ 

t. — 

/ 

7^ 

4 
1 

1 

-j 

'^ 

Immigration 

The  tide  of  immigration  has  been  steadily  rising  during 
the  period  under  review.  With  exception  of  the  epochs 
of  business  depression,  the  average  annual  immigration 
has  approximated  five  hundred  thousand  since  18S0.  The 
number  of  arrivals  during  the  last  three  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century  amounted  to  11,746,000,  a  sum  which 
exceeds  the  immigration  figures  for  the  fifty  years  previous. 
During  the  first  years  of  the  twentieth  century,  the  annual 
inflow  has  steadily  increased  from  448,000  in  1900  to 
1.2S5.349  —  the  high-water  mark  — in  1907-1908.  The 
depression  of  1907  reduced  the  number  of  immigrants  to 
782,870  for  1908,  751,786  for  1909. 

A  notable  change  in  the  character  of  the  immigrants 
has  taken  place  in  the  past  thirty  years.  Immigration 
from  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  Germany  has  fallen  off, 
that  from  Norway  and  Sweden  has  not  increased,  while 
the  surplus  population  of  eastern  Europe  has  been  mi- 
grating to  the  United  States  in  ever  increasing  numbers. 
The  peasants  of  Italy,  Greece,  Hungary,  Austria,  Rou- 
mania,  Russia,  Lithuania,  Armenia  —  unhappy  countries 
where  wages  are  low  and  taxes  high  and  where  oppor- 
tunities for  land  ownership  are  exhausted  —  throng  the 
steerage  quarters  of  the  transatlantic  steamers  and  the 
immigrant  stations  of  the  United  States  ports.  The  im- 
migration from  southern  and  eastern  Euro.x;  from  1 901  to 
1908  inclusive  made  up  55  per  cent  of  the  total  European 
for  that  period. 

These  late  comers  bring  little  money  in  their  pockets, 
fully  half  of  them  are  illiterate,  and  the  majority  are  un- 
skilled laborers.  The  more  enteqirising  find  their  way  to 
the  factories  of  New  England,  to  the  mines  and  iron  works 
"f  I'ennsylvania  and  Colorado,  to  the  farms  and   flour 

nulls  and  abattoirs  of  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley ;   but 
a  u 


Rept.  of 
the  Commis- 
sioner of 
Immigra- 
tion, 1909. 


Commons, 
Races  and 
Immigrants, 
Ch.  II. 


Wright, 
Inlluence 
of  Trade 
Union*  on 
Immigrants. 


li; 


f^i 


ti 


:» 


n 


» »  11 


i 


:ii 


i 
1 

i 


I' 

I! 


i 


If' 


:i 


i  1, 


i^: 


i 


Dubois, 
Negroes  in 
the  United 
States, 
6S-98. 


370      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  Russian  Jews,  the  ^y^^^^^^l^^^^^^ ^^  ^^ 
!lt  r^rr^Sy  teS.- Cleveland 
Pittsburg  cSo,  and  St.  Louis.  Only  a  small  proper 
?  n  TFurooean  mmigrants  reach  the  Southern  states 
Tor  etmpirb"  "r" -^  a  half  per  cent  of  those  com 
bJin  iX  909  were  destined  for  the  cotton  states  1, 
rite  of Tsystematic  effort  to  procure  Italian  labor.  Th 
;'r™nour  miUion  negro  laborers  serves  to  dxscourag 

IMMXGKANTS   ADMITTED    TO    UNITED    STATES    DUIU.G    YE^K    E.DIN 

^^  June  30,  1909 


Armenian  . 
Bohemian  . 
Bulgarian  . 
Chinese 
Croatian    . 
Dalmatian 
Dutch    .     . 
English 
Finnish 


3,108 

6,850 

6,214 

1,841 

20,181 

1,888 

8,114 

39.021 

11,687 


French  . 

German 

Greek    . 

Hebrew 

Irish 

Italian  . 

Japanese 

Lithuanian 

Magyar 


19.423 
58.534 
20,262 

57.551 
31.18s 
190.398 
3.275 
15.254 
28,704 


Mexican  .     .  iS.59 

Polish       .     .  77.5'' 

Portuguese   .  4.'>o 

Roumanian  .  8,04 

Russian    .     •  4o,<>' 

Scandinavian  34,91; 

Scotch      .     •  i6,4J 

Spanish    .     .  5.8- 

Syrians    .     .  zM 


Kelsey, 
Evolution 
of  Negro 
Labor. 

U.S.  Census, 
tooo,  V, 
,.ora-cxx. 

Statistical 
Atlas,  iQoo 
Plates  ss.  62 

Mitchell. 
Organized 
Labor, 
Ch.  XXI. 


immigration,  and  the  freedmen  remam  the  labor  rehar 
of  the  Sr.ith.     Whether  wage  earners,  tenants    or  la 
owners,  they  are  producing  the  major  part  of  the  cott. 
tobacci  rice,  and  sugar  crops  to-day.    No  l^s  eager 
the  immigrants  to  possess  themselves  of  land,  the  negr 
are  rapidly  becoming  a  race  of  peasant  farmers     In 
forty  years  since  emancipation,  the  freedmen  of  Virg. 
have  acquired  993.500  acres  those  of  Georpa  1,075,0 
and  one  fourth  the  colored  farmers  of  the  Umttd  bU 
now  own  the  land  they  till.    In  the  far  West,  Chu 
and  Japanese  laborers  have  largely  preempted  the  h 
Only  six  and  a  half  percent  of  the  European  immign 
arriving  in  1908-1909  indicated  an  intention  of  going 
to  the  Cordilleran  or  Pacific  coast  states. 

Derived  for  the  most  part  from  lands  where  rate 


.  15.501 

.  77.5^5 

1  .  8.04I 

.  40.*'''5 

an  34.Qy& 

.  i6,44(> 

.  5.820 

.  3.668 


rates  of 


•   !' 


*   ■> 


I  i 

it 


i^ 


li 


'5 


I    ' 


i 


I 


l! 


h 


Contemporary  Problems 


371 


wages  and  standards  of  living  are  much  less  than  in  the 
United  States,  immigrants  come  into  direct  competition 
with  American  ;  iborers,  for  machinery  and  diflferentiation 
of  mechanical  processes  render  it  easy  to  find  occupation. 
In  a  few  weeks  or  months  the  newcomer  has  acquired  as 
much  skill  as  the  old  hand,  and,  since  he  will  work  for  less 
money,  is  likely  to  supersede  him.  The  sweat  shops  of 
New  Yo-'',  Rochester,  and  Chicago  are  filled  with  Italians 
and  Russian  Jews;  the  anthracite  coal  mines  are  worked 
by  Slavs  and  Italians;  Bohemians  are  tilling  the  com 
lands  of  Kansas;  Swedes  are  taking  up  the  wheat  farms 
of  Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas.  These  European  peasants 
havt  performed  the  tasks  that  were  too  heavy  or  un- 
pleasant or  low-paid  to  attract  American  workmen  ;  they 
have  built  our  railroads,  developed  our  mines,  manned 
our  coke  ovens  and  iron  foundries,  cleared  the  forests, 
tilled  the  prairies;  they  have  contributed  enormously  to 
the  exploitation  of  the  resources  of  the  country.  How  to 
leave  them  free  to  do  this,  without  entailing  some  degra- 
dation of  the  American  standard  of  living,  is  the  economic 
phase  of  the  immigration  problem. 

Legislation.  —  The  military  requisitions  of  the  Civil 
War  drained  the  country  of  laborers,  and  the  agricultural 
districts  needed  farm  hands,  the  factory  towns  operatives. 
Under  the  Act  to  Encourage  Immigration  approved 
July  4,  1864,  the  agents  of  American  employers  were 
allowed  to  engage  laborers  in  foreign  lands  and  to  arrange 
for  their  transportation  to  this  country,  and  th  contract 
pledging  wages  in  payment  of  charges  was  declared  valid 
in  law  and  therefore  enforcible.  The  act  was  repealed  in 
1868,  but  the  practice  of  imp>orting  laborers  under  engage- 
ment to  work  at  specified  wages  continued.  Und«  r  this 
arrangement,  thousands  of  Italians,  Poles,  and  Hungarians 
were  imported  for  work  on  the  railroads  and  in  the  mines 
and  factories  of  the  Northern  states.  Abortive  efforts 
were  even  made  to  ship  laborers  to  the  rot  ton  fields  of  the 
South. 

As  the  social,  jwlitical,  and  industrial  effects  of  unregu- 


Hall, 
Inunigration. 


Commons, 
Races  and 
Immigrants, 
Ch.  VI. 


Rept. 
Chandler 
Com.  on 
Immigration, 
S2d  Cong., 
2d  Session, 
Rept.  No. 
1333- 


VVhelpley, 
Problem 
of  the 
Immigrant. 


I'll 
5i 


f  ': 


•-i 


1-.  !' 


W      J)' 


ww:w^m^ 


'.'.'' 


~p 

1 

i 
I 

1 

M 

:        '■ 

J                           ■.        ' 

1    ; 

i  \ 


Smith, 
Emigration 
and  Immi- 
pralion, 
Ch.  XII. 


Rept.  Ford 
Committee 
on  Contract 
Labor, 
soth  Cong., 
1st  Session, 
Misc.  Doc 
No.  572. 

Rept.  Indust, 
Com.,  X.V, 
647-671. 


Powderly, 
Ch.  X. 

Rep.  Indust. 
Com.,  XV, 
4.50-446. 


Smith, 
Emigration 
and  Immi- 
gration, 
Ch.  XI. 


372      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

lated  immigration  became  apparent,  the  hospitable  atti 

tu^e  of  the  public  was  converted  to  suspicion  and  alarm 

The  Alien  Pasv;ngers  Act  of   1882  excluded  "  convicts 

lunatics,  idiots,  or  any  person  unable  to  care  for  himscl 

or  herself  without  becoming  a  public  charge,"  and  di( 

much  to  relieve  our  prisons,  asylums,  and  poorhouses  0 

an  undue  burden.     It  did  not,  however,  attcippt  to  prevcn 

the  degradation  of  our  economic  standards  by  the  C(jni 

petition  of  employees  engaged  abroad  ^o  work  at  Europoai 

wages.     The  agitation  against  contract  labor  undertake 

by  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  other  trade  unions  came  t 

a  head  in  1885.    The  Alien  Contract  Labor  Law  (i88;« 

rendered  it  unlawful  for  an  employer  to  prepay  passap; 

or  in  any  way  to  assist  or  encourage  the  immigration  l 

foreign  laborers  under  wage  contract.     The  enforcemer 

of  this  law  has  been  attended  with  considerable  difficult) 

but    some   seventeen    thousand   laborers   were    excliidf 

between  189^  and  1909.     It  is  probable  that  rigid  inspu 

tion  of  immigrants  on  this  account  prevents  the  negoti; 

tion  of  many  such  contracts,  but  it  does  not  material! 

check   the   importation   of   laborers   under   the    padn, 

system.     Thousands  of  Italians,  Greeks,  and  Syrians  con 

to  this  country  under  binding  obligation  to  men  of  the 

own  race,  who  prepay  their  passage  and,  under  varioi 

pretexts,  farm  out  their  labor,  collecting  a  percentage 

the  wages  paid.     This  form  of  peonage  is  liable  to  grc 

abuses  whirh  are  difficult  to  discover  and  to  punish. 

On  the  Pacific  coast  agitation  against  the  degradii 
influence  of  alien  labor  has  been  directed  against  Mexica 
and  Orientals.  The  feeling  against  Sonorians  was  \o 
strong  in  the  days  of  the  gold  rush,  and  they  \nc 
driven  from  the  diggings  by  the  foreigner's  license  (; 
reenforced  by  mob  violence.  The  220,000  Chmc 
laborers  admitted  to  California  between  1840  and  iS 
were  seldom  tolerated  in  the  mines,  but  they  fou 
profitable  occupation  in  purveying  to  the  necessities 
the  gold  seekers.  Their  diligence,  thrift,  and  indust^ 
skill  rendered  them  dangerous  competitors  in  field  or  woi 


t  ■ 

I  ^ 

» 


Ri(  K  Fields  in  nn:  Hawaiian  Isi.anos 
Cliincsc  laborers. 


i   I  i: 


t: 


i^^  --i 


I  ; 


» 

i  ,     . 

1 

;;f 

li'l 

i  i     ; 

ll^ 

0. 

Contemporary  Problems 


171 


II 


shop,  and  although  they  usually  returned  to  China  with 
their  accumulated  earnings,  there  were  still,  in  1876,  one 
hundred  thousand  Celestials  in  California.  The  Burlin- 
game  Treaty  (1868)  had  accorded  to  the  Chinese  people 
the  right  of  voluntary  immigration  to  the  United  States 
with  the  privileges  allowed  the  most  favored  nation,  a 
concession  essential  to  the  free  admission  of  Americans  to 
China.  This  policy  was  soon  challenged  by  the  labor 
party,  and  California  politicians  were  obliged  to  advocate 
the  exclusion  of  the  Oriental.  By  18S0,  they  had  induced 
the  Federal  government  to  negotiate  a  new  treaty  stipu- 
lating the  right  to  "  regulate,  limit,  or  suspend  "  but  not 
to  prohibit  the  immigration  of  Chinese  laborers.  Pressure 
was  then  brought  to  bear  upon  Congress  sufficient  to 
secure  the  passage  of  the  Restriction  Law  (18S2)  forbid- 
ding for  a  period  of  ten  years  the  admission  of  Chinese 
laborers  "  ski  d  and  unskilled,  and  those  engaged  in 
mining."  By  the  Geary  Act  (1892)  the  poll  >  of  exclu- 
sion was  adopted  for  a  second  ten-year  period,  and  the 
Chinese  already  in  the  country  were  required  to  register 
and  submit  to  the  Bertillon  record,  as  a  means  of  identifi- 
cation. In  1898  this  legislation  was  made  applicable  to 
Hawaii  and  the  Philippines,  and  these  new  dependencies 
wore  deprived  of  their  most   reliable  labor  force. 

The  rigid  regulations  of  the  immigration  officials  render 
the  return  of  laborers  who  have  visited  China,  and  the  ad- 
mission of  the  exempted  classes,  travelers,  students,  and 
merchants,  extremely  difficult,  and  by  consequence,  a 
marked  anti-.\merican  feeling  has  developed  in  China.  The 
Hoxor  revolt  was  directed  against  all  foreigners,  but  the 
commercial  boycott  of  190,^  was  declared  against  the 
Initc-d  States.  The  great  importing  companies  united  in 
an  elTort  to  exclude  American  goods  from  Chinese  markets, 
iind  there  was  a  marked  shrinkage  in  our  Oriental  trade. 
•^ all-,  t)f  cDtton  cloth  to  China,  our  principal  foreign  pur- 
rli.iser.  shrank  from  Si6,ooo,ooo  in  \\.yo2  to  $4,000,000  in 
i<i34.  and  our  total  exports  were  reduced  from  $20,722,000 
'- ■  Su-,H6i,ooo.     Some   conciliatory   niuiiiriculiuii   ui    the 


Coolidge, 
Chinese 
ImmiKratiun, 
Ch.  XI. 


i  If 


f  ' 


\\ 


if! 


r: 


Hi 


i   t. 


ft; 


. 


f" 

n 

1        *" 

! 

1          1 

' 

!   [I 

t 

' 

Asutic 
Immigration. 
Annals 
Am.  Acad. 
Soc.  and 
Pol.  Sci..  34 
223-387- 


Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
XV,  757. 


374      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Geary  Law  was  urged  by  the  textUe  interests  of  the  Eastern 
and  Southern  states,  by  the  grain  dealers  of  Washington 
and  Oregon,  and  by  the  employers  of  labor  all  along  the 
Pacific  coast.    The  Exclusion  Law  was  reenacted  (1004) 
but  the  petty  persecutions  that  had  attended  its  enforce- 
ment were  abated.  .    ^.     „  .,   , 
The  number  of   Chinamen  now  resident  m  the  United 
States  is  but  70,000,  and  their  place  in  the  labor  supi)ly 
of  the  Pacific  coast  is  being  taken  by  immigrants  from 
Japan.    There  were  25,000  Japanese  in  the  United  States 
in  1000,  and  they  came  over  at  the  rate  of  15,000  a  year 
in  the  next  eight  years.     Originally  So  per  cent  of  these 
men  were  agricultural  laborers,  and  they  came  under  con- 
tract to  immigration  companies  made  responsible  Dy  tht 
Miki.O^'s  government  for  their  safe  transportation  anc 
subsequent  welfare.    They  proved  thrifty  and  industnou> 
but  were  accustomed  to  earning  one  tenth  of  the  wape; 
paid  to  American  laborers  of  correi.ponding  skill.   Exclusmi 
of  these  new  competitors  could  not  be  accomplished  h) 
mere  Congressional  enactment,  for  the  Japanese  govern 
ment  is  stronger  than  the  Chinese  and  is  able  and  read; 
to  guarantee  to  its  citizens  the  liberties  allowed  to  aiv 
European  people.     By   the   treaty   negotiated    in    i.)o 
only  certain  classes  of  laborers  may  be  admitted  lo  th 
continental  territory  of  the  United  States  and  these  mu. 
show   passports   from   the   Japanese   emigration  official 
certifying  that  they  arc  "former  residents,        parent 
wives,  or  children  of  residents."  or  "  settled  agriculturists. 
i.e.  already  in  iwssession  of  land  in  this  country. 


I  i 


wws^i9Sfsgw^m;ii^.^'jm»vjUh9>y:m 


CHAPTER   XI 


Wl 

f-              ^ 

1 

8   f 

CONSERVATION 
Exploitation  of  Natural  Resources 

Destruction  of  Game  and  of  Fur-bearing  Animals.  —  To 

Europ)ean  settlers,  America  seemed  a  forbidding  wilderness. 
The  eastern  slope  of  the  Appalachians  and  the  Coastal 
Plain  were  heavily  wooded,  with  only  an  occasional  opening 
where  the  rivers  joined  the  sea.  The  dense  forest  growth 
afforded  refuge  to  wild  beasts  and  treacherous  savages, 
and  was  a  haunting  terror.  It  was  the  white  man's  func- 
tion to  clear  away  the  trees  and  reduce  the  wilderness  to 
civilization  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  every  colonist  set 
about  this  task  with  zeal.  The  trees  were  felled  remorse- 
lessly, while  the  trunks  and  underbrush  were  piled  in  heaps 
and  burned  as  useless  waste.  The  giants  of  the  forest  were 
girdled  and  'eft  to  die  standing.  The  attempt  of  the  home 
government  to  conserve  "  mast  trees  "  in  the  interest  of  the 
navy  was  one  of  ihe  grievances  of  the  colonists  against 
British  rule.  In  the  virgin  forests  of  the  Mi.ssissippi 
Valley,  the  right  of  a  free-born  American  to  destroy  the 
timber  was  exercised  without  stint,  and  the  neighborhcxxi 
of  every  settlement  was  stripped  bare. 

Wild  animals  were  regarded  -.Uh  like  disfavor,  and 
slaughtered  ruthlessly.  Not  only  clangrrous  boasts,  as 
wolves,  l)ears,and  wildcats,  but  useful  animals  like  the  doer, 
thi-  moose,  the  elk,  were  driven  from  the  land.  .\ny  at- 
tempt to  preserve  the  game  savored  of  Old  World  privilege 
and  was  not  to  Im;  tolerated.  Birds  shared  the  fate  of 
'|u;ulrupeds.  Quail,  partridge,  wild  ducks,  wild  pigeon 
arc  not  dependent  on  the  forest  for  su  lenance  and  pro- 
tcttiun,  and  readily  auupl   ihcir   habits   tu   a   CUiii\aled 

375 


n 


I  -  I 


!«r_^siBar^sK>5tfervr 


'-■c  «■>/':  .1- 


'.li-*^.^:^- 


1 

'    -I 


i        I 


m 

i 

pi 

i 

.    r 

I     ; 


Laut,  The 
Worlil  s  Fur 
Trade. 


376      Indnstnal  History  of  the  United  States 

country ;  but  they  were  shot  in  season  and  out  of  season 

with  no  egard  for  propagation.    The  wood  pigeon,  the  most 

Sicious  of  game  birds,  was  killed  for  sport.     James  Flint, 

the  Scotchman,  who  went  down  the  Mississippi  m  1821. 

describes  the  process:   "  The  woods  abound  m  pigeons,  a 

tall  species  of  fowl  which  migrates  to  the  southward  m 

wTnter,  and  returns  to  the  north  in  spring.     Their  numbers 

are  so  immense  that  they  sometimes  move  m  clouds,  up- 

ZL  of  a  mile  in  length.     At  the  time  when  they  are  pass- 

Tng  the  people  have  good  sport  in  shooting  them,  as  on. 

flock  frequently  succeeds  another  before  the  gun  can  b. 

Xded     The'parts  of  the  woods  where  they  roost  an 

distinguished  by  the  trees  having  their  branches  broken  ol 

and  many  of  them  deadened  by  the  pressure  of  the  myriad 

nv;ts-s;t.K.,ha^ 

The  beaver,  the  trapper's  most  profitable  Prey,  was  drive, 
from  one  hunting  ground  after  another,  untU  the  sUc 
was  practically  exhausted.    They  disappeared  from  th 
New  EnR  and^streams  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeent 
^e"u  y"'ind  from  the  Champlain  country  but  little  late 
At  th/headwaters  of   the  Mississippi  and   the  Missou 
where  beaver  dams  were  abundant  in  the  time  of  Pike  a 
Lewis  and  Clark,  the  hunting  grounds  were  exhausted  nn  ht 
scttk-rs  arrived.     The  rivers  of  ^^e  Cord,  leran  area   c-a 
and  west,  whose  beaver  dams  furnished  a  livelihood  to  t 
ema^es  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  were  trappnl  o 
bv  the  mi<ldle  of  the  nineteenth  ce.itury  so  that  the  hunu 
abandoned  the  industry  and  tcH,k  to  farmmg.     The 
maining  isolated  breeding  gn.unds  have  been  curtailed 
lun^lnring.  sheep-grazing,  and  agriculture,  ""»'  ^^'^  ^'^ 
i-;  .  curiositv  hardly  to  be  seen  outsule  a  zoological  p. 
The  catch  o'f  1S70  was  225,000.  that  of  .Sqc,  S2.000.  .1 
of  1000.  Kooo.     In  marked  contrast  to  th,^  pnKl.gal 
stru^^n.  the  conservative  methods  of  the  Hudson  > 
Comnan-havc  maintained  the  beaver  grounds  ot   t  .. 
.,;... '..rrnms  at  full  bearing  c.ipacity.     Xo  trapping  .^ 
lowed  .luring  the  spring  and  summer,  the  breecun^  ^c.>- 


i 


^■iS^:^i?ir^.i^ 


.  .>...■> 


Conservation 


I  If 


377 


the  females  are  never  killed,  and  cubs  under  one  ^^cax  are 
not  taken.  By  consequence  the  trade  of  the  Hu.i>on's 
Bay  Company  is  greater  to-day  than  in  the  period  of  it? 
monopoly. 

The  journals  of  the  explorers  give  marvelous  accounts 
of  the  big  game  that  roamed  the  western  plains  in  search  of 
water  and  pasturage.     In  the  vast  stretch  of  upland  be- 
tween the  Missouri  and  the  Brazos  rivers,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  buffalo,  deer,  and  antelope  throve  and  multi- 
plied, furnishing  easy  prey  to  the  trapper's  rifle.     To  the 
Indian  and  to  the  jnoneer,  the  buffalo  was  the  most  useful 
of  animals,  furnishing  at  one  and  the  same  time  food,  cloth- 
infr,  and  shelter.     The  meat  was  so  nourishing  that  it  was 
thought  to  have  curative  properties,  the  skin  of  the  calves 
and  cows  was  suitable  for  coats  and  blankets,  while  the 
tough  hide  of   the  bulls  made  admirable  tepees.     The 
resourceful  JoutJ,  the   leader  of  La  Salle's  Gulf  coast 
colony,  used  them  to  cover  his  huts.     E.xplorer,  trapper, 
and  emigrant  alike  subsisted  on  the  buffalo,  but  the  animals 
were  slaughtered,  none  the  less,  with  reckless  glee.     Cows 
were  killed  by  preference  because   their  flesh  was    more 
tender  and  their  hides  more  pliable,  and  usually  nothing 
but  the  haunches  was  eaten,  the  carcass  being  left  for  the 
carrion  crow.     When  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  was  built 
across  the  prairie,  only  a  few  dwindling  herds  remained, 
and  these  made  up  for  the  most  part  of  disconsolate  old 
l)ulls.     Tourists  were  accustomed  to  display  their  prowess 
l'\  Tiring  from  the  car  windows  at  a  chance  buffalo. 

The  sea  otter  has  almost  disappeared  from  the  Pacific   Fur  Seal 
coa^t,  the  catch  of  uyo^  being  but  2,^0,  while  the  number   '"^i-^t'Ka- 
of  -<al  is  ra.)idly  diminishing  in  .\laskan  waters.     In  1X74   *'""'  "*^''- 
the  >eal  herd  was  estimated  at  5.000,000.     In  iS()S  the  isti- 
maif  was  1,000.000,  and  in  1008,  iSo.ooo.     The  annual 
c>i!<liof  100.000  has  dwindled  to  i  :?,ooo. 

Iho  fur  trade  of  the  United  States  represents  a  greater 
m'>ii<"\'  value  than  ever  before,  because  prices  have  risen 
\vi'h  the  pressure  of  demand  upon  supply.  The  mirket 
'•iiiiv  ui  utaver,  seal,  atid  marien  have  made  the>e  furs 


s  ■ 

re  f 
I  * 


u 


itiiJitil^j^; . 


t  • 


»t 


im 


H 


378      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

articles  of  luxury,  and  there  is  an  increasing  sale  for  squirrel, 

rabbit,  skunk,  muskrat,  red  fox,  and  pony  sMns     The 

trappers  of  these  inferior  furs  get  the  prices  that  used  to  be 

paid  for  beaver. 

National  The  fishing  grounds  of  the  Atlantic  «)ast  would  hav, 

S;;^rvation  been  exhausted  long  since  but  for  the  work  of  the  state  am 

Commission,    j^g^^j^nal   fish   commissions.     Fish   hatcheries   are   main 

m.  38i-386.  ^^.^^  ^^  convenient  stations,  and  the  rivers  are  restockec 

^^^th  aU  marketable  varieties  and  many  of  the  game  hsh 

Without  this  artificial  renewal,  tiie  supply  of  cod,  herring 

shad,  salmon,  and  lobster,  would  have  been  reduced  t 

the  vanishing  point;    but  the  combined  efforts  of  stat 

and   national    bureaus   can   hardly  keep  pace  with   th 

reckless  methods  of  the  fishermen.     Hook  and  line  hax 

been  superseded  by  seines,  and  these  in  turn  by  weirs  an 

traps.     "  The  shad  fishery  was  undoubtedly  maintaiiu 

for  many  years  by  hatching  operations  solely,  but  recent 

the  fishing  has  become  so  intense  that  most  of  the  spawi 

ing  run  of  fish  are  caught  before  they  reach  the  spawnu 

grounds,  and  a  sufficient  supply  of  eggs  for  the  hatchen 

cannot  be   obtained."     The   salmon,    the   royal   hsh 

sedulously  guarded  in  old  Europe,  has  been  driven  fm 

the  AUantic  coast.    On  the  Pacific  coast  where,  within  t 

memory  of  white  men,  the  salmon  run  up  the  rivers  \v 

so  heavy  that  fish  were  crowded  out  of  the  water  and  01 

be  caught  in  the  hand,  the  canning  industr>-  is  threateii 

with  extinction,  because  the  schools  fijihl  shy  of  the  t.shi 

grounds.     The  Indian's  spear   has   l>een    su{)planle(l 

wholesale  methods,  the  gili  net,  the  salmon  wheel,  and  \ 

fish  trap.     The  annual  run  is  rapidly  diminishing,  notxM 

standing  the  fact  that  iSo.000.000  spawn  are  planted  e; 

year  in  the  mountain  streams  by  the  states  immediat 

concerned,  and  as  manv  more  by  the  national  governm> 

National  Exhaustion  of  Forests.      The  commercial  methods ... 

Conservation    great  lumber  companies  have  proven  even  more  destnu  l 

^'•"^  •  than  the  broad  ax  of  the  pioneer.      Whi)lesale  logpmu 

I, '::!';,.      pnxver  machmerv   have  swept    large   areas  clean   oi 

547  ss.  more  valuable  trees,  leaving  only  underbrush  anu  >i 


VflUIIHII 


F.n.;(;iN,-,   ,s-   j,,,     r\-,rx[)Ks. 


VOJLM-i^^TutF^^^nir^ 


m 


t 


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1  f 


ft 


I 


I  , 


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il    ;il' 


iiUll 


i'^  ::« 


■^±-^i: 


lBBS1^5S«SSB»;;v  •-■■•>' 4 


Conservation 


379 


oak.    The  best  timber  was  cut  away  from  New  England 
New  York,  and  the  upper  xMississippi  Valley  fo-ty  years  ago.' 
The  vast  forests  of  oak  and  pine  that  covered  the  Appalach- 
ian range  from  north  to  south,  and  ihe  hard  woods  of  the 
lowlands  have  largely  disappeared,  and  the  aftergrowth 
of  birch,  maple,  and  poplar  is  now  being  logged  down 
the  rivers.    These  inferior  woods  do  not  furnish  material 
for  the  building  of  houses  and  ships ;  they  are  manufactured 
into  boxes,  furniture,  and  wood  pulp.     The  white  pine  of 
the  Great  Lake  region  is  being  exhausted,  and  the  output 
has  declined  70  per  cent  since  1890.    The  pine  barrens  of 
the  Gulf  states  are  now  being  invaded,  and  the  vast  forests 
that  sheltered  the  sugar  plantations  and   orange    groves 
from  frosty  "  northers  "  are  being  laid  low.     The  boxing 
of  the  long-leaf  pine  has  weakened  the  standing  trees,  and 
the  new  growth  has  been  burned  out  until  one  fifth  the 
forest  that  was  once  the  pride  of  the  Carolinas  is  gone,  and 
the  naval  stores  output  has  seriously  declined.     To-day 
structural  timber,  cedar,  spruce,  and  fir,  are  being  shipped 
from  Oregon  to  Maine,  the  width  of  the  continent.     The 
forests  of  the  Pacific  slope  have  been  depleted  with  reckless 
disregard  of  the  future.     Redwoods,  cedars,  and  Douglas 
firs  that  have  spent  a  thousand  years  in  reaching  full  per- 
fection, are  felled,  sawed  asunder,  yanked  to  the  sawmill 
by  donkey  engines,  and  sliced  into  planks,  boards,  and 
shingles  by  the  latest  labor-saving  devices.     Here  as  in  the 
Eiistern  states  the  lumbermen  are  falling  back  on  inferior 
species,  and  converting  hemlock  into  tan  bark  and  wood 
pulp^  by  means  of  portable  machinery. 

While  we  have  been  wasting  our  timber  resources  in  this 
reckless  fashion,  the  demand  for  wood  pnxlucts  has 
stt-adily  increased.  In  spite  of  the  various  substitutes,— 
brick,  cement  and  structural  iron,  — the  consumption' of 
timl)er  has  grown  more  rapidly  than  population.  The 
result  is  a  marked  rise  in  price.  Since  iqoo  the  cost  of 
white  pine  lumber  has  increased  5,?  per  cent,  oak  54  per 
cent,  hemlock  =;';  per  cent.  Douarlas  fir  63  per  cent,  yellow 
pi'.H   65  per  cent,  and  yellow  poplar  78  per  cent.'    Fully 


Defebaugh, 
History  of 
the  Lumber 
Industry,  I, 
ch.  26,  27,  28 


Bruncken, 
North 
American 
Forests. 

National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
4g8-si2. 


National 
Conservation 
Com,  11,748. 


"fl 

Hi 


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i  I 


mill  uMiMii  I     II  mi  III 


n  I 


f 


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l.i 


>  n 


i  i 


380      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

two  thirds  of  the  timber  felled  never  reaches  the  market 

One  fourth  of  the  tree  is  lost  m  cutting  and  loggmg,  fron 

one  third  to  two  thirds  is  thrown  aside  at  the  sawmill 

while  one  third  of  the  mill  product  disappears  m  seasonm, 

and  adapting  for  linal  use.    Lumbering  may  fairly  1) 

regarded  as  the  most  wasteful  of  trades. 

National  Fire  is  an  agent  of  destruction  even  more  to  be  feare 

Conservation   than  the  lumberman,  and  more  than  one  third  of  our  fore. 

C°--"'        wealth  has  gone  up  in  smoke.     The  Indians  set  hres  , 

''"'''•         order  to  drive  the  game  from  cover  or  to  outwit  their  en. 

mies,  and  they  are  perhaps  responsible  for  the  treeless  co, 

dition  of  the  Great  Plains  and  the  deserts  of  Arizona  an 

New  Mexico.     But  civilized  man  has  exercised  an  cm 

more  blighting  influence.     Sparks  from  railroad  bcom 

tives  and  unextinguished  camp  lires,  the  heedless  or  . 

tentional  conflagrations  started  in  brush  piles,  etc.,  hu 

caused  incalculable  damage.     Since  1870,  when  data  nv. 

flrst  recorded,   the    annual    loss    from    forest   fires    h 

amounted  to  $50,000,000,  and  the  loss  in  human  life  a, 

in  other  property  is  always  grave. 

The  devastated  forest  lands  arc  unfit  for  agricultu 

and  the  wreckage  of  the  lumberman  serves  only  to  t. 

destructive  fires.     "  It  is  stated  by  the  Forest  Warden 

Michigan  that  forest  fires  (notably  those  of  1S71, 18M.  a 

1896)  have  done  more  to  hinder  settlement  in  the  norths 

counties  of  that  state  than  all  other  agencies  combined. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  something  like  65,ooo.c 

acres  of  forest  land  ruined  by  cutting  and  by  fire,  which  c 

only  be  restored  to  usefulness  by  replanting  the  trees      I 

forestation  is  a  costly  process,  especially  in  an  and  cl.m. 

Two  thirds  of  the  western  slope  of  the  Sierras,  once  nc 

pine  and  Douglas  fir,  is  now  covered  with  a  worth 

chaparral  growth.     When  the  new  growth  is  destro; 

with  the  adult  trees,  the  l.urnt-over  area  cannot  be  resto 

to  productive  forest  for  many  years.     It  is  estimated  t 

20,000,000  acres  of  young  growth  is  destroyed  every  y 

and  that  the  cost  of  replanting  this  spontaneous  crop  nv. 

amount  to  $200,000,000. 


W^STE  IN  cutting:  Redwood  Stump  left  by  Lumbfrmfv 
OF  Thirty  Years  ago;  White  Fih  and  Young  Seo"Z 
IN  THE  Background.    Sierra  National  Forest 


i  fi 


ti  fi 


~f  ;( 


TuK  Wastes  of  Logging  in  Pine  Forests  of  Michigan- 


Miatocorv  resoiution  test  chakt 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


1.1 


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Pi 

1^  iSi 

tSi 

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12.0 

1 


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1.6 


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/APPLIED  INA^OE    Inc 

\6ii  East   Main  Slrxl 

Rochnltf,   Nm   York         14609       USA 

(716)   *a2  -  OJC»-  Phorw 

(716)  288  -  598»  -ro« 


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Conservation 


381 


126-141. 


The  indirect  losses  from  deforestation  are  even  more 
serious  than  the  direct.  There  is  deterioration  of  stock, 
birches,  soft  maples,  laurels,  and  chaparral  taking  the  place 
of  oak,  pine,  and  spruce  ;  there  is  inevitable  erosion  of  the  un- 
protected soU,  which  is  washed  away  by  the  heavy  rains,  xational 
leaving  gullies  and  gorges  ;  there  is  serious  depletion  of  the  Conservation 
soil,  the  vegetable  mold  being  burned  out  and  the  mineral  ^°'"-  "• 
elements  washed  away.  The  increasing  irregularity  of 
stream-flow  is  probably  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  cutting 
of  the  forests  on  the  higher  portions  of  drainage  basins. 
The  snows,  exposed  to  the  full  heat  of  the  sun,  melt  quickly, 
and  the  run-off  is  speedy  and  destructive.  As  a  conse- 
quence we  have  a  costly  alternation  of  spring  floods  and 
summer  droughts  and  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  and 
severity  of  snowsUdes  and  landslides.  Our  reckless  policy 
shows  in  shameful  contrast  to  that  of  Switzerland,  where 
"ban"  forests  have  been  cultivated  for  centuries  as  a 
guard  against  avalanches. 

Our  reckless  assurance  is  not  confined  to  the  growing 
forests.  In  1907  buildings  worth  v*=! 2 50,000,000  were  de- 
stroyed by  fires,  four  fi f ths  of  which  v  ere  i )revcntable.  The 
Chicago  fire,  187 1,  cost  3i68,ooo,ooo ;  the  Baltimore  fire, 
$50,000,000;  the  Sun  Francisco  fire,  $350,000,000.  We 
mifiht  save  one  million  dollars  a  day  by  fireproof  construc- 
tion and  adequate  precautions,  but  because  of  our  careless 
habits  our  fire  departments  cost  ten  times  as  much  as  in 
European  cities,  and  our  fire  insurance  rates  are  twelve 
times  those  of  Great  Britain. 

Depletion  of  Pasturage.  —  The  pioneers  who  crossed  the 
Great  Plains  in  the  forties  found  them  a  bovine  paradise 
during  .\pril  and  May,  when  the  vast  stretches  of  pasture, 
miiiKJed  with  the  gayest  flowers,  made  a  pleasing  |)rospect 
for  man  and  beast.  The  great  watershed  rising  from  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Rockies  in  an  undulating  plateau 
abounded  in  nati\'c  grasses,  self-curing  and  highly  nutri- 
tious :  the  buffalo  grass  of  the  river  bottoms,  the  grama 
sr:H.paof  semi  arid  plains,  the  bunch-grass  of  the  nu)untain 
slopes,     Lieutenant  Pike  described  Texas  as  the  most  won- 


I    \ 


Ml 


'i 


i    |i' 


ii 


'I  I, 

•i' 


I 

.   r 

I  I 

■   I  \ 

'II  i 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  HI, 
355-361. 

Brisbin, 

Beef 

Bonanza. 

Adams,  Log 
of  a  Cowboy. 


Kept.  Public 
Lands  Com- 
mission,/904. 


382      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

derful  pasture  land  in  the  world.  The  luxuriant  herbage 
stood  as  high  as  a  horse's  belly  and  covered  the  level  plain  a 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  Herds  of  cattle  and  horses  fed  a 
large,  grew  fat,  and  multiplied,  coining  money  for  the  Span 
ish  rancheros,  who  had  nothing  to  do  but  corral  the  beast 
for  an  occasional  matanza.  The  Louisiana  Purchase  gav 
us  300,000,000  acres  of  magnificent  pasturage,  free  to  a 
comers,  and  the  chance  of  making  a  fortune  at  public  e> 
pense  was  eagerly  seized.  Cattlemen  and  horsemen  drov 
their  stock  from  point  to  point,  seeking  out  watering  place 
and  the  best  grazing  ground.  Thus  was  the  wealth  of  th 
prairie  converted  into  marketable  crops,  —  draft  animal 
beef  cattle,  wool,  and  hides.  The  old  cattle  trail  ran  froi 
Texas  to  Montana,  through  Indian  Territory,  Kansas,  an 
Nebraska,  and  before  the  days  of  the  railroad  unnumbere 
cattle  were  driven  along  this  herders'  highway  to  the  aba 
toirs  of  St.  Louis,  Omaha,  and  Chicago. 

Unfortunately  Uncle  Sam  imposed  no  regulations  upc 

the  cattle  barons,  and  under  their  ruthless  exploitatic 

this  public  pasture  land  has  been  rapidly  exhausted.    T\ 

most  fertile  regions  have  been  overstocked,  the  herbaj 

trampled  down  and  eaten  to  the  roots,  and  the  water  holi 

ruined  by  careless  use,  until  the  old  proportion  of  two  cov 

to  an  acre  has  been  changed  to  two  acres  for  a  cow.    Tl 

homesteading  of  the  arable  area  has  curtailed  the  ran; 

until   the  Great   Plains   have    ceased   to   be  a  comm< 

pasture.    The  decade  between  1880  and  1890  witnessi 

the  heyday  of  the  cattle  industry  in  the  Southwest.    1 

i8qo  a  serious  drought  parched  the  pastures;   thousani 

of   cattle   died,   and   many   ranches  were   ru.ned.    Tl 

Dingley  Tariff  raised  the  price  of  wool,  and  a  boom 

sheep-raising  followed.     Sheep  herders  invaded  the  catt 

ranges,  and   the  pastures  were  eaten  to  the  bone.      11 

cattlemen  had  no  legal  title,  but  they  endeavored  to  |)r 

tect  their  accustomed  grazing  grounds.     Disputes   i:ri 

heated,  and  the  controversy  came  to  blows.     Sheep-  ■■'■'■ 

cattle  wars  were  waged  in  Lincoln  County.  New  MeMC 

in  the  Tonto  Basin,  Arizona,  and  in  southern  Wyor  in 


Conscniation 


383 


The  narrowing  of  the  public  range  has  forced  the  cattle- 
men to  have  recourse  to  forage  crops,  alfalfa,  kaffir  corn, 
cottonseed  meal,  etc.  Beef  steers  are  now  shipped  from 
Texas  and  Montana  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  be  fattened 
for  the  market,  at  a  notable  advance  in  cost.  The  propor- 
tion of  food  animals  to  population  has  been  steadily  declin- 
ing since  1890.  Indeed,  the  figures  for  the  past  seventy 
years  show  a.  general  decrease. 

Number  Animals  per  Head  of  Population 


Bureau  of 
Corporations 
Rept.ChlV, 
on  Beef 
Industry. 
Bulletin  gi, 
Dept.  of 
Agriculture, 
1909. 


I 


YCAR 

Cattle 

1840        . 

.88 

i860        . 

.81 

1880        . 

■79 

i8qo     . 

.92 

1900     . 

.69 

Sheep 


Swine 


113 
•71 
.84 
•65 
•52 


Rate  op 

Decbease 

IN  Meat 

Supply 


1-54 
1.07 

•99 
.92 

•83 


I- 


per  cent 

72.4 
79-4 
593 


of  Labor. 


The  American  dietary  in  1840  was  one  half  meat;  the  Bulletin  41, 
proportion  has  now  fallen  to  one  third.     Nevertheless  the  '{■/'•Com. 
pnce  has  steadily  risen,  e.g.  that  of  fresh  beef  as  much  as 
thirty  per  cent  in  the  past  twenty  years. 

The  Exhaustion  of  the  Soil  is  less  spectacular  but  no 
less  real  than  the  curtailment  of  our  pasture  and  forest 
areas.  A  shrewd  English  observer,  the  author  of  American 
Husbandry  (1765),  called  attention  to  the  reckless  e.x- 
ploitation  of  the  farm  'ands  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and 
denounced  as  criminal  the  careless  methods  then  in  vogue. 
His  anticipations  have  long  since  been  realized.  Indian 
corn  can  no  longer  be  grown  on  Caf)e  Cod,  the  hill  farms  of 
New  England  produce  only  hay,  the  tobacco  lands  of  tide- 
water Virginia  are  virtually  "dead,"  even  the  compara- 
tively new  lands  of  the  West,  the  wheat  fields  of  California 
and  Minnest)ta,  show  a  declining  yield,  lands  that  formerly 
bore  50  bushels  {>er  acre  now  averaging  only  14  bushels. 


Hi 


w 


\m 


i  if 
it 


iiJt 

ill 

i  !  i!   ■ 


WW 


'         - 

I 

r 


I 


Roberts. 
Fertility  of 
the  Land, 
Ch.  I,  X,  XI. 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
I,  7S-8o; 
III,  3-to8. 

National 

Conservation 

Com., 

I,  o.')-ii°; 

111,  476-483- 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  III. 
426-44<J- 


Rnherts. 
Anthracite 
Coal  In- 
(lustrv,  Ch. 
I,  II,  III.  IV. 


384      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  cause  is  not  far  to  seek.    Land  has  been  abunda 

and  cheap  in  this  country,  while  labor  in  the  agncullui 

regions  has  been  costly.     The  farmer  has  undertaken 

get  the  largest  return  per  unit  of  labor  instead  of  per  ui 

of  land     This  means  extensive  farming  with  labor-savi 

machinery,  reliance  upon  one  product,  and  neglect  of  cr 

rotation,    scientific    fertilization,   subsoil    plowmg,  dra 

age  irrigation.     The  waste  from  soil  erosion  is  stupendo 

It  is  estimated  that  the  780,000,000  tons  of  silt  carr 

down  the  rivers  to  the   sea  reduces  the   productivity 

the  farms   every  year  by  the   amount  of  J5oo,ooo,o 

That  this  depletion  is  unnecessary  is  evidenced  by  the  1 

that  Old  World  wheat  lands  bear  more  heavily  than  oi 

ee    Great    Britain  32-2    hxxshth,    Germany    28  bush 

France    19.8    bushels,    Austria    17.8    bushels     Hung 

17  6  bushels,  while  our  own  average  is  13.8  bushels     U 

the  peasants  of  Russia  secure  a  lower  crop  return  than 

farmers  of  the  United  States. 

Exhaustion  of  Mineral  Resources  has  gone  on  ap; 
The  bog-iron  of  the  Atlantic  states  was  used  up  in  the  eij 
eenth  century.  The  resources  of  the  Appalachian  ra 
are  reaching  the  point  where  mines  are  abandoned  beet 
of  high-cost  production,  and  we  are  drawing  upon  the  se 
ingly  inexhaustible  supplies  of  the  Lake  Supenor  disti 
The  experts  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  ( 
mate  that  at  the  present  rate  of  output  all  the  high  gi 
ores  will  be  exhausted  within  thirty  years,  when  we  n 
have  recourse  to  inferior  or  less  accessible  deposits. 

Iron  is  a  raw  material  that  may  be  used  over  and  ( 
again,  the  wrecks  of  the  scrap-heap  being  turned  into 
furnace ;  but  coal,  the  great  industrial  fuel,  is  consumed  < 
for  all,  and  there  is  no  means  of  restoring  the  supply, 
coal  mines  of  eastern  Virginia,  whose  development  Ha 
ton  thought  wise  to  stimulate  by  an  import  duty,  are 
<;inre  abandoned.  The  anthracite  coals  of  eastern  V 
sylvania  still  produce  100,000  tons  per  year,  but  at  sU-. 
increasing  cost.  Shafts  must  be  sunk  deeper,  and  thi 
veins  and  deposits  of  lower  grade  coal  be  utilized.     The 


I    ¥. 


i  The  W 


-XE  o.  XHK  Ma.:  0.0  Cc„..vo  .  B..CK  Hats  X.x.ox,.  F, 


OREST 


^Ht  U  \sTi:s  OF  K 


ko.s.o.v.1ou.K.kmUm,,wohth,.oop«Ack. 


i      5  4 


!    1 


: 

:    ! 


ra 


■r 


i    ; 


i  i 


■!• 


i  i 


t  t 


ili 


1i 


h 


h 


;  i 


Hv 


•■■II 

I 


ct3 


; 


I 


i      r \  i 


i  .  ?   ; 


( 


i 


Conservation 


385 


r 


<? 


y 


K 


KS 


^ 
C 


0 


of  hoisting,  pumping  and  ventilating  apparatus  increases 
as  operations  are  extended.  Hence  the  price  of  anthracite 
coal  is  advancing  year  by  year.  The  bituminous  mines 
of  the  Middle  West  will  soon  reach  the  point  of  diminishing 
return,  and  we  must  then  have  resort  to  the  lignite  coals  0I 
the  Dakotas  and  Montana.  Geologists  estimate  that  at  the 
present  rate  of  output  the  high  grade  coals  cannot  last  much 
more  than  a  hundred  years.  There  has  been  a  criminal 
waste  of  this  all-important  fuel.  The  waste  in  mining  is 
computed  at  sixty  per  cent,  but  this  is  reduced  to  forty 
per  cent  in  the  best  equipped  plants.  The  waste  in  con- 
sumption is  even  greater.  Steam  engines  utilize  about  eight 
per  cent  of  the  coal  they  burn,  not  ten  per  cent  of  the  fuel 
consumed  in  power  plants  is  converted  into  energy,  while 
the  electric  lighting  plants  utiHze  less  than  one  hundredth 
part  of  the  coal  burned. 

The  by-products  of  the  bituminous  coal  fields,  petroleum 
and  natural  gas,  furnish  heat,  light,  and  energy  on  easier 
terms  than  carbon.     We  have  been  using  petroleum  for 
sixty  years,   and  have  already  consumed    1,800.000,000 
barrels.     At  the  present  rate  of  output  all  workable  v  ■{[. 
will  be  exhausted  by  1950.     The  output  of  the  Appala.  man 
area  is  rapidly  declining,  and  the  center  of  production  is 
shifting  toward  Oklahoma.     The  demand   for  kerosene, 
lubricating  oils,  and  all  the  by-products  of  the  refinery,  is 
steadily  advancing,  while  the  use  of  crude  oil  as  fuel'  in 
locomotives  and  steam  engines  has  just  begun. 

Xatnral  gas,  a  much  more  volatile  substance  than  petro- 
leum, is  the  most  convenient  of  all  fuels  for  domestic  pur- 
poses, being  piped  from  the  coal  fields  to  distant  cities  and 
readily  distributed  to  consumers.  This  valuable  endow- 
ment we  have  thrown  away  wantonly,  like  boys  at  play, 
^len  drilling  for  oil  allowed  the  gas  to  escape,  as  an  obstacle 
to  production,  or  lighted  the  jet  and  watched  it  burn  it- 
self ()ut.  The  actual  waste  is  estimated  at  1,000,000,000 
cu:uc  feet  a  day.  Preventive  legislation,  undertaken  in 
I'o.msylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  has  come  too  late  to  con- 
ser\  e  the  main  supply,  while  new  communities  have  not 

2C 


Campbell, 
Coal 

Resources 
of  Public 
Domain. 


National 

Conservation 

Com., 

in  ,46. 

Bureau 
>T\ro- 
ns, 
>leum 

try. 


R 


Cor-,.. 

v., IT. 
Ill      , 


' 


c 


wl 


1J 


J  ■ 
!  f: 


I 


•'  •!  =  ': 


:ii 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
Ill,  SS8. 


Bulletin 
L'  S.  Com. 
of  Labor, 
The 

Phosphate 
Industry. 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
III.  S"- 


386      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

yet  learned  caution.    The  daily  waste  from  the  Cadd 
fields  of  Louisiana  is  sufficient  to  light  ten  cities  of  the  s,x 

of  Washington.  ,        -^    •     c     * 

The  extensive  beds  of    calcareous    deposit    in  Sout 

Carolina,  Florida,  Tennessee,  and  northern  Arkansas  ha^ 

furnished  30,000,000  tons  of  ^^^'^:^^'''^^'^L^l 

known  means  of  restoring  phosphoric  acid  to  «ur  deplet. 

«,ils.     The  resources  of  South  Carolina  and  Fbrida  a 

^poaching  the  point  of  exhaustion,  while  the  Tenness 

Sate  beds  are  being  monopolized  by  mining  sym 

Ltes      The  conservation  of  this  important  fertilizer  is 

the  utmost  importance  to  our  agricultural  future.      L  nl 

Pxnortation  be  prevented,  low-grade  rock  utdized,  and  t 

"deposits  jus't  discovered  on  the  public  domam  econor 

cally  administered,  our  phosphate  beds  the  slow  accun 

Sion  of  geologic  ages,  will  be  exhausted  within  twenty-t 

^^The  mining  of  the  precious  metals,  gold  and  silver,  c 
per,  lead,  and  zinc,  was  quite  as  heedless  -tne  early  st 
of  Exploitation.     In  the  "  golden  age     of  California  r 
less  ^vaste  characterized  the  diggings  ^ "^^f  ,f 'J^^'^.^; 
While  the  washing  process  was  in  vogue,  fully  half  the  . 
face  "  dirt  "  was  carried  down  the  rivers  to  the  sea. 
maximum  yield,  $65,000,000,  was  reached  within  five  y^ 
of  the  discovery,  and  the  output  from  the  diggings  d^in< 
thereafter.     Recourse  was  then  had  to  quartz  and  hyd 
lie  mining,  the  stamp  mill  and  quicksilver  amalgama 
The  best  mines  of  Colorado  and  Tsevada  are  going  thrc 
the  same  process  of  exhaustion.    The  Cripple  Creek 
Yukon  discoveries  and  the  cyanide  process  raised  our 
production  to  $80,000,000  in  1902,  and  then  the  ou 
declined     The  development  of  new  possibilities  in 
fornia  by  the  dredging  of  river  wash,  the  opemng  up  o 
latent  resources  of  Nevada,  and  the  rusn  to  Cape  > 
raised  production  to  $94,000,000  in  1906,  but  it  is  prot 
that  another  point  of  maximum  output  has  been  reach* 
The  Waste  of  Human  Life.  —  Even  more  criminal 
the  waste  of  material  resources  is  the  waste  of  human  en 


es 

e  Caddo 
[  the  si/.e 

in  South 
isas  have 
the  best- 
:  depleted 
lorida  are 
Tennessee 
ng  syndi- 
lizer  is  of 
Unless 
;d,  and  the 
1  economi- 
V  accumu- 
wenty-five 

silver,  cop- 
:arly  stages 
jrnia,  reck- 
h  to  south, 
alf  the  sur- 
;sea.    The 
n  five  years 
^s  dwindled 
.nd  hydrau- 
algamation. 
ing  through 
:  Creek  and 
;ed  our  gold 
the  output 
lies  in  Cali- 
ng  up  of  the 
Cape  Nome 
t  is  probable 
n  reached, 
riminal  than 
iman  energy. 


^^^%:;i  " 


The  Anthracite  Coal  Mine 


RS 


mi 


1    I 

\ , 

1 

\ 

1      ■ 

' 

J 

ui 

1    1 

i  I 


^\).' 


I    ! 


Conservation 


387 


The  exploitation  of  human  beings  in  factories  and  foundries,  National 
m  mines  and  in  the  railway  service,  is  no  less  ruthless  than  Conservation 
the  destruction  of  our  forests.     Our  annual  casualty  Ust  is  S^el"' 
a  national  disgrace,  being  larger  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber  f  employees  than  that  of  any  civilized  country.    In  the 
coal  mines,  for  example,  the  casualty  rate  is  3.5  per  thou- 
sand, and  this  among  able-bodied  men.    In  1908,  out  of 
500,000  employees,  3000  were  killed   and   7000  injured. 
When  one  considers  that  most  of  these  men  have  families  de- 
pendent upon  their  labor,  the  social  wreckage  seems  appall- 
ing.    The  death  roll  increases  from  year  to  year,  because 
with  the  deepening  of  the  mines,  the  introduction  of  auto- 
matic picks,  undercutting  machines,  and  electric  transpor- 
tation, the  risks  are  increased.    This  is  a  dangerous  oc- 
cupation, and  accidents  arising  from  the  firing  of  coal  dust 
and  the  explosion  of  fire  damp  cannot  always  be  avoided  ; 
but  many  frightful  disasters  are  attributable  to  the  crimi- 
nal carelessness  of  men  and  management.     Boys  under 
sixteen  should  not  be  employed  underground,  foreigners 
who  do  not  understand  the  English  language  should  not  be 
placed  in  stations  of  responsibility,  and  rigid  state  inspec- 
tion should  secure  that  aU  possible  safety  de\aces  are  em- 
ployed.   The  loss  of  life  among  railwa)'  employees  is  even  Rept  inter- 
more  terrible  than  in  the  mines,  and  here  again  casualties  state  Com- 
are  on  the  increase.     The  number  killed  in  1888,  the  first  r''" 
year  in  which  such  data  were  collected,  was  2451    the  '  "^' 

number  injured  five  times  as  great.  In  1907  the  number  of 
employees  killed  was  4534,  and  the  number  injured,  87,644, 
while  the  total  casualty  list  for  employees,  passengers, 
and  other  persons  was  11,839  killed  and  111,016  injured. 
I  h('  Cuban  War  was  not  so  destructive  of  life  and  health, 
lactones  and  workshops  are  contributing  their  quota  to 
this  industrial  waste.  The  f)()isonous  fumes  from  arsenic 
and  cyanide  compounds  produce  blood  poisoning ;  the  ir- 
ntatmg  dust  arising  where  metal  and  glass  are  wrought 
enter  the  throat  and  lungs  and  generate  tuberculosis  and 
pneumonia,  and  the  quarries  are  no  less  injurious.  The 
mortality  among  stone  and  marble  workers  is  six  times 


Mf 


ij] 


I  '\ 


t  'l 


■•»  '■'.  I 


i  !   r 


ji 


Census,  iqoo, 
Manufac- 
tures, IV,  72s 


388      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

that  prevailing  among  professional  men.  Lead  poisoning 
is  another  industrial  disease  which  afflicts  painters  and 
typesetters  and  paint-mill  employees.  Dangerous  ma- 
chinery adds  thousands  each  year  to  the  already  Ions 
list  of  casualties,  in  which  the  young  and  venturesome 
bear  the  larger  proportion.  An  expert  in  vital  statistics 
has  recently  estimated  the  industrial  loss  accrumg  from 
these  several  causes  at  $854,250,000  per  year,  of  which 
half  is  represented  in  wages  and  an  additional  third  11, 
expenditure  for  illness,  items  which  are  borne  by  thi 
injured  employee. 

Utilization  of  Wastes  in  Manufacture.  —  It  is  only  whei 

man  is  dealing  with  nature  at  first  hand  that  he  dares  to  !)» 

prodigal.     The  materials  into  which  he  has  put  labor  an( 

thought  acquire  a  market  value  and  are  consequently  usee 

with  care  ;  in  the  processes  of  manufacture,  therefore,  wasti 

has  been  largely  eliminated.     The  refuse  of  the  oil-refiner} 

is  converted  into  valuable  by-products,  perfumes,  and  tla 

voring  extracts,  and  mineral  oils.     The  slag  of  the  iron  fur 

naces  is  utilized  as  ballast  in  railroad  construction  or  con 

verted  into  paving  stones  and  slag  brick.     The  low  grad 

coal,  heaped  into  "  culmbanks  "  by  the  careless  operation 

of    the    nineteenth  century,   is    now    being  overhaulec 

screened,  and  marketed  as  chestnut,  buckwheat,  birdseyi 

and  other  fine  grained  varieries,  which  prove  far  better  tha 

the  coarser  grades  for  the  automatic  stokers  of  the  grea 

power  plants.     The  by-products  of    the  slaughterhoib 

fully  cover  the  cost  of  converting  the  animals  into  f.uK 

The  blood  is  transformed  into  albumen  for  bleaching  th 

offal  into  fertilizers,  the  hoofs  into  glue,  the  horns  mt 

buttons,  knife  handles,  etc..  the  bones  become  ivory  an 

gelatine,  the  hair  is  made  up  into  mattresses  and  feltm,! 

the  various  fats  into  butterine,  glycerine,  etc.     Pepsin  an 

other  medicines  are  distilled  from  divers  glands,  and  a  ncrv 

specific  from  the  gray  brain  matter.     Cotton  seed,  tt 

waste  of  the  gin,  was  tu>l  into  the  gutters  and  left  t=>  ^ 

and  become  a  public  nuisance  in  the  ante-bellum  days  ot  1 1 

South.    Yankee  ingenuity  has  found  a  use  for  this  reiib 


I;',- 

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III! 


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ii 

Conservation 


389 


By  1870  the  crushed  seed  was  used  as  a  fertilizer,  by  1S80 
as  a  cattle  food,  and  by  1890  it  was 'transformed  into  articles 
of  human  diet.  To-day  no  part  of  the  seed  is  wasted.  The 
lint  is  ginned  off  and  made  up  into  felt,  the  hulls  are  crushed 
into  mast  and  may  yet  be  converted  into  paper.  The 
kernel  is  ground  as  fine  as  flour,  the  oil  pressed  out,  and  the 
meal  cake  remaining  sold  for  cattle  feed.  Cotton-seed  oil 
refined,  becomes  cottolene,  lubricating  oil,  and  low  grade 
olive  oil.  Even  the  wastes  of  the  forests  are  utilized,  once 
they  get  to  the  mill.  Sawdust,  being  elastic,  absorptive, 
and  nonconducting,  makes  the  best  kind  of  packing  and 
bedding  material,  and  it  is  beginning  to  be  worked  over 
into  flooring  tiles  and  porous  brick,  briquettes  and  bois  durci, 
after  the  European  example.  The  cuttings  that  cannot 
be  used  as  timber  are  wrought  into  a  number  of  valuable 
by-products.  Beech,  birch,  and  maple  are  converted  into 
oxalic  and  acetic  acid  and  wood  naphtha,  the  stumps  and 
branches  of  yellow  pine  into  turpentine,  oak  slabs  into 
charcoal,  the  bark  of  oak  and  hemlock  are  sent  to  the  tan- 
neries, while  spruce,  poplar,  and  cottonwood  furnish  wood 
pulp  for  the  paper  mill.  Even  pine  nee(  lies  may  be  distilled 
into  camphor. 


Preventive  Legislation 

State  and  national  legislatures  have  done  much  to  pre- 
vent the  unnecessary  destruction  of  our  natural  resources 
Game  laws,  though  enforced  against  persistent  opposition, 
src  ure  a  closed  season  sufficient  in  length  to  protect  birds 
and  animals  during  the  breeding  season  and  to  prevent 
tile  annual  "  kill"  exceeding  the  annual  increase.  Hunting 
and  fishing  licenses  impose  regulations  on  the  methods  of 
slaughter,  and  usually  bring  in  a  revenue  from  liccnbo  fees 
and  fines  large  enough  to  maintain  the  game  wardens.  In 
North  Carolina  and  California  the  leasing  of  game  pre- 
«.r\  cs  to  private  persons  anri  hunting  clubs  is  an  accepted 
policy.  The  seal  fisheries  are  guarded  by  an  international  ^"'est'iKa- 
asrccment  (1896)  between  the  United  States,  Great  Brit-  tion.  1890. 


.H 


;.( 


iiii 


1    ■■■ 

I  i" 


■^ 


it  f 


!i 


in 


Whittelsey, 
Labor  Legis- 
lation in 
Massa- 
chusetts. 


Coman, 
Supreme 
Court 
Decision  in 
Oregon  Case 


390      Inctustnal  History  of  the  United  States 

ain,  and  Russia,  in  accordance  with  which  pelagic  sealing 
is  proscribed  the  year  round  within  sixty  miles  of  the  Pnbi- 
loff  Islands,  and  throughout  the  Behring  Sea  during  the 
breeding  season.  Licensed  vessels  only  are  permitted  tc 
follow  the  seals  into  deep  water,  and  in  the  land-kill  fire- 
arms and  explosives  are  forbidden.  The  chief  violators 
of  this  humane  code  are  the  Japanese  sealers,  who  arc 
unfortunately  not  bound  by  the  treaty. 

Legislation  to  prevent  the  waste  of  human  life  has  de 
veloped  very  slowly  in  the  United  States.  Massachusetts 
took  the  lead  in  1874.  with  a  law  imposing  limitations  upor 
the  employment  of  children.  The  present  labor  code  o 
that  progressive  commonwealth  forbids  the  employmen 
of  children  under  fourteen  years,  proscribes  night  worl 
for  young  persons  and  women,  and  enforces  a  fifty-eigh 
hour  week  in  all  factories  and  workshops.  A  battle  rop 
has  been  fought  over  the  legality  of  limiting  the  workin 
day  for  women,  on  the  ground  that  any  interference  wit 
the  terms  of  employment  would  deprive  these  laborers  c 
the  freedom  of  contract.  The  contention  has  been  recentl 
overruled  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Oreg<i 
case  (1Q08) .  In  upholding  the  provision  for  a  nine-hour  da 
for  the  woman  wage  earner,  Justice  Brewer  gave  the  opinu 
that  "  the  limitations  which  this  statute  places  on  h. 
contractual  powers,  upon  her  right  to  agree  with  her  er 
ployer  as  to  the  time  she  shall  labor,  are  not  imposed  sole 
for  her  benefit,  but  also  largely  for  the  benefit  of  all.  .  • 
Since  healthy  mothers  are  essential  to  vigorous  offsprin 
the  physical  well-being  of  women  becomes  an  obj.ct 
public  interest  and  care,  in  order  to  preserve  the  health  a. 
vigor  of  the  race."  The  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois  has  1 
cently  sustained  a  nine-hour  law  for  women  on  much  \ 
same  grounds,  and  fully  half  the  states  of  the  Lnion  ha 
imposed  similar  restrictions  upon  the  amount  of  ph>M< 
exertion  that  may  be  required  of  female  laborers. 

In  employments  where  special  risks  are  encounters. 
heavy  responsibilities  imposed,  restrictions  on  the  worki 
day  for  men  have  been  enacted.     Utah  and  seven  oil 


?r 


Conservation 


391 


Rocky  Mountain  states  prescribe  an  eight-hour  day  for 
miners,  while  the  federal  law  of  1907  determines  the  con- 
ditions under  which  railway  employees  of  the  interstate 
roads  may  perform  their  responsible  tasks.  A  nine-hour 
shift  for  telephone  and  telegraph  operators,  a  sixteen-hour 
limit  for  train  employees,  followed  by  a  ten  hours'  interval 
for  rest,  together  with  safety  devices  and  uniform  brak- 
ing and  switching  appliances,  render  the  Esch  Law  a 
highly  important  safeguard  not  only  for  passengers  but  for 
the  men  who  run  the  trains. 

The  liability  of  employers  for  accidents  due  to  unguarded 
machinery  and  the  negligence  of  fellow  employees  was  recog- 
nized in  the  federal  law  of  1907,  so  far  as  interstate  carriers 
are  concerned.  Few  of  the  states  have  gone  so  far,  and  we 
are  still  shamefully  behind  the  English  and  German  re- 
quirements. The  injured  workman  gets  no  compensation 
if  contributory  negligence  can  be  proven,  and  the  scale  of 
damages  is  not  determined  by  the  law.  The  operation  of 
the  penalty  is  not  automatic,  and  suit  must  be  brought 
by  the  injured  man  or  his  family  in  order  to  secure  damages. 
It  is  estimated  by  the  accident  insurance  companies  that 
three  fourths  of  the  indemnity  paid  by  the  employer  is  usu- 
ally expended  in  litigation.  Some  of  the  great  employers  of 
labor,  such  as  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  maintain  a  form  of  voluntary 
insurance  which  goes  far  to  make  good  the  shortcomings 
of  the  law. 

A  series  of  four  coal-mine  explosions  occurring  in  De- 
cember, 1907,  killed  seven  hundred  men  and  shocked  the 
happy-go-lucky  American  public  to  the  point  of  demand- 
ing that  something  be  done.  The  federal  government, 
through  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  arranged  for 
rescue  stations  at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  and  Urbana,  111.,  where  the 
t'lnnents  of  risk  were  studied,  life-saving  appliances  de- 
viled, and  crews  of  men  trained  in  the  best  methods  of 
relief.  A  Bureau  of  Mines  was  established  in  1910  for 
thf  purpose  of  supervising  this  work  and  testing  exi)l()- 
si\cs,  shafting  materials,  and  hoisting  machinery,  and  a 


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National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 

Bailey, 
Cyclopedia 
of  Agri- 
culture, 
IV,  486. 


392      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

rescue  station  is  to  be  placed  in  every  large  coal  field  in 

the  country. 

The  battle  against  disease  is  being  waged  with  ever  in- 
creasing effectiveness.    Health  commissions,  city,   state 
and  national,  are  making  scientific  study  of  local  and  gen- 
eral conditions.     Quarantine  regulations,  sanitary  require- 
ments, and  tenement  house  inspection  are  bemg  enforced 
in  spite  of  the  protests  of  selfish  private  mterests      Ihe 
epidemics  that  devastated  our  ports  in  time  past  are  largely 
done  away,  and  isolated  outbreaks  are  quickly  brought  un- 
der control.     Vaccination  has  banished  smallpox ;  the  cam- 
paign against  mosquitoes  has  eliminated  yellow  fever ;  ty- 
phoid will  disappear  with  insistence  on  pure  water  and  the 
destruction  of  the  house  fly,  whUe  California  is  riddmg 
herself  of  rats  and  ground-squirrels,  the  carriers  of  bubonic 
plague.    The  warfare  against  contagious  diseases  of  more 
insidious  ty^pe  may  not  so  soon  be  accomplished,  but  we  are 
fighting  tubeiculosis  by  tenement  house  reform,  the  hook- 
worm disease  by  cleanliness,  and  the  vice  diseases  which 
are  responsible  for  a  large  proportion  of  the  defectives  in 
our  asylums  are  coming  to  be  regarded  as  intolerable. 
Variations  in  the  death  rate  indicate  the  hygiemc  advance 
n-ade  in  the  course  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury    The  numbers  of  deaths  per  thousand  of  populatu.n 
from  1804-1825  was  24.6 ;    from  1826-1S50,    25.7 ;    from 
i8=;i-i863,  28.3;  from  i864-i875»  25-4;    1876-1888,22.0: 
from  1889-1901,  21.     Since  1890  the    death  rate  m  our 
principal  cities  has  declined  in  New  York  from  25.4  t" 
18.6;   in  Boston  from  23.4  to  18.9;    in  Chicago  from 

19.87  to  I4-07- 

"  The  public  welfare  outweighs  the  right  to  private  gain 
and  no  man  mav  poison  the  people  for  his  private  protil, 
said  President  Roosevelt,  in  recommending  to  Congri-; 
legislation  forbidding  interstate  traffic  in  adulterated  ci 
deteriorated  foods.  The  Pure  Food  and  Drug  law  is  in 
forced  with  difficulty  because  of  the  opposition  of  the  muuu 
facturers  concerned,  but  the  new  standards  imposed  nuI 
ultimately  be  insisted  upon  by  state  legislation  and  b; 


Conservation 


393 


the  private  purchaser.  The  proposition  for  a  National 
Department  of  Health,  brought  forward  by  Congressman 
Owens  in  March,  1910,  is  urged  on  the  ground  that  the 
numerous  municipal  and  state  agencies  should  be  brought 
into  line  with  the  most  advanced  achievement,  and  that 
communities  which  are  struggling  against  local  influences 
should  have  the  support  of  the  Federal  government.  The 
health  of  our  people  is  no  less  important  to  national  pres- 
tige than  our  standing  army,  while  the  money  cost  of  neg- 
lect is  more  serious  than  war.  It  is  estimated  that  the 
financial  loss  represented  in  preventable  deaths  amounts 
to  $1,000,000,000  per  year,  and  that  the  costs  of  prevent- 
able illness  and  the  medical  aid  incidental  thereto  amounts 
to  another  billion  dollars. 


Reclamation 

The  Federal  government  has  not  confined  its  efforts  to 
the  guarding  of  life,  brute  and  human,  against  reckless 
exploitation,  but  has  organized  and  financed  certain  under- 
takings to  which  private  enterprise  was  inadequate.     The 
building  of  post  roads  and  canals  was  urged  upon  Congress 
by  Secretary  Gallatin,  but  the  scheme  he  proposed  was  too 
vast  for  the  men  of  his  generation,  and  only  recently  have 
wi'  come  to  realize  the  advantage  of  a  comprehensive  plan. 
A  large  amount  of  piecemeal  work  has  been  done  by  the 
general  government  in  the  way  of  improving  rivers  and  har- 
bors.    Millions  of  dollars  of  public  money  have  been  bpent  r^  j  \n\^nA 
in  building  levees  along  the  Mississippi,  in  erecting  break-  wTterwayT' 
waters  where  natural  harbors  needed  reinforcement,  dredg-  *^'""-  '«"'*- 
ing  river  channels,  removing  obstructions  to  navigation,  etc.   3"!]°-.' 
A  considerable  portion  of  this  expenditure  has  gone  to  waste  375-370.' 
because  ajjpropriations  and  engineering  skill  were  inade- 
quate to  permanent  results.     Moreover,  the  advent  of  the 
railway  diverted  public  interest  from  navigation  projects, 
an<!  many  of  the  canals  built  by  state  aid  and  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  national  land  grants  have  fallen  into  disuse.     Rail- 
way traffic  has  superseded  water  traffic  because  it  offers 


I 


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in 

ill 

i  I   : 


Johnson, 
Inland 
Waterways, 
Ch.  IV,  V, 
VI,  VII. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
13-57- 

Inland 
Waterways 
Com.,  1908, 
177-312- 


Transpor- 
tation by 
Water 
in  U.S., 
149-380. 


Dixon, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  Mississippi 
River  System 


American 
Waterways, 
.\nnals  Am. 
.Vad.  ^l  ; 
1-299. 


394      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

greater  speed  and  convenience,  but  our  magnificent  system 
of  inland  waterways  has  still  a  large  part  to  play  in  in- 
dustrial development.  The  accumulation  of  freight  traffic 
in  the  autumn  months,  when  the  crops  are  to  be  shipped  to 
market,  taxes  all  the  resources  of  the  raUways,  and  the  con- 
sequent congestion  often  involves  the  shipper  in  heavy  loss. 
Moreover,  where  no  competing  carrier  is  available,  freight 
rates  are  likely  to  be  excessive.  Recourse  to  a  water  route 
with  its  possibilities  in  the  way  of  low  cost  transportation, 
would  have  more  effect  on  freight  tariffs  than  appeals  to 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 

The  Inland  Waterways  Movement  has  many  adherents 

among  business  men,  and  the  example  of  England,  France 

and  Germany,  where  a  large  part  of  bulky  products  travel 

by  boat,  is  cited  in  evidence  of  our  own  stupid  neglect.    W  £ 

have  25,000  miles  of  na\-igated  river  and  2120  miles  ol 

operated  canals ;   but  the  mileage  should  be  increased  anc 

the  capacity  of  the  water%vays  doubled.    Except  on  th( 

Great  Lakes,  where  steamship  lines  are  operated  in  connec 

tion  with  the  railways,  there  has  been  a  notable  decUne  11 

the  bulk  and  value  of  water-borne  freight  during  the  pas 

thirty  years.    Many  of  the  canals  built  at  heavy  cost  11 

the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  bcei 

abandoned,  while  rivers  such  as  the  Hudson  and  the  Mi? 

sissippi,  once  the  highways  of  commerce  (1850-1880),  ha\ 

surrendered  the  bulk  of  traffic  to  their  swift  competitoi 

Our  natural  waterways  must  be  cleared  of  debris  and  a 

luvial  deposits:,  canals  that  bear  strategic  relation  to  trans 

portation  systems  must  be  widened  and  deepened  to  a( 

commodate  modern  craft,  so  that  they  may  enter  int 

effective  competition  with  the  railroad.     A  steamer  with 

capacity  of  70,000  tons  is  the  equivalent  of  one  hundrc 

freight  trains,  and  can  be  manned  and  fired  at  the  cost  ( 

one.  . 

Federal  aid  is  invoked  in  behalf  of  a  senes  of  transport; 
tion  projects  more  or  less  feasible.  The  Panama  Caiu; 
now  approaching  completion,  will  promote  commerce  1. 
tween  New  Orleans  and  San  Francisco,  and  do  much  towai 


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Conservation 


395 


abating  transcontinental  freight  rates.  The  canalization 
of  the  Ohio  River  at  a  cost  of  $40,000,000  would  give  a 
cheap  outlet  for  the  coal,  iron,  and  timber  of  the  Appa- 
lachian states.  The  deep  waterway  from  the  Lakes  to  the 
Gulf,  via  the  Chicago  drainage  canal  and  the  Illinois  River, 
is  intended  to  furnish  sufficient  draft  for  sea-going  vessels, 
so  that  the  cattle,  grain,  and  cotton  growa  in  the  MisJssippi 
Valley  can  be  shipped  direct  to  Europe.  The  deep  water- 
way from  BufTalo  to  New  York,  utilizing  the  Erie  Canal 
and  the  Hudson  River,  would  tap  the  Great  Lakes  at  an- 
other point  and  furnish  an  outlet  to  the  Atlantic.  The  cost 
of  an  all-water  route  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans,  devel- 
oped to  the  capacity  of  ocean  steamers,  is  estimated  at 
$ioo,ooo,coo,  but  this  initial  expenditure  would  be  quickly 
made  good  in  the  economies  of  transportation,  and  it  is 
therefore  urged  by  the  shipping  interests  concerned.  The 
business  men  of  the  Northwest  are  no  less  insistent  that  the 
Federal  government  should  undertake  to  render  the  Co- 
lumbia River  navigable  for  freight  steamers  by  enlarging 
the  locks  at  the  Cascades  and  canalizing  the  river  at  the 
Dalles.  More  than  one  thousand  miles  of  waterway  could 
thus  be  rendered  available  for  the  wheat  fields  and  fruit 
orchards  of  the  Columbia  River  Basin. 

Achievements  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  —  In 
his  last  Congressional  message,  George  Washington,  our 
farmer  president,  recommended  the  establishment  of  a 
government  department  charged  with  the  furthering  of  in- 
telligent agriculture.  The  proposition  was  debated  from 
time  to  time,  but  action  was  deferred  till  1839,  when 
Congress  appropriated  $1000  to  t  expended  in  the  pur- 
chase of  new  varieties  of  seeds  and  plants  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Patent  Office.  The  appropriation  was  increased 
as  the  propaganda  grew  popular,  but  the  Bureau  of  Agri- 
culture was  not  organized  as  a  distinct  office  until  1862. 
In  this  same  year  provision  was  made  for  the  maintenance 
ot  agricultural  colleges  from  the  proceeds  of  land  grants, 
and  thus  the  movement  for  scientific  agriculture  obtained 
full  recognition.    The  first  agricultural  experiment  stations 


Matthews, 
Keinaking  of 
the  Missis- 
sippi. 

Deep 

Waterways 
Com.,  iSq7, 
7-33- 

Johnson, 
Inland 
Waterways, 
Ch.  X,  XI. 


Transpor- 
tation by 
Water  in 
U.S.,  II, 
24Q-280. 


Greathouse, 
Hist.  Dept. 
of  Agri- 
culture. 


m 


3J¥ 


4  ■ 


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J 


(-; 


i .  'I 

i 

3      . 

y 

{      I 

Fairchild, 
Our  Plant 
ImniLranls. 


396      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

were  estabUshed  by  Federal  appropriation  in  1887,  and 
the  Bureau  of  Agriculture  was  raised  to  the  status  ot  a 
department  with  representation  on  tiie  Cabinet  two  years 
after  The  annual  appropriation  to  this  service  is  now 
$16000,000,  while  the  Third  Endowment  Act  (1907)  pro- 
vides for  a  money  grant  of  $50,000  a  year  to  each  of  the 
forty-six  states  and  territories  for  the  extension  of  agri- 
cultural training. 

The  functions  of  the    Department  of  Agriculture  art 

represented  in  a  series  of  bureaus,  e.g.  the  Weather  Bureau 

where  an  accurate  climatic  record  is  kept,  and  wheiici 

forecasts  and  weather  signals  are  issued  for  the  benelit  m 

shipping  and  agriculture ;  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry 

which  studies  the  diseases  of  horses,  cattle,  hogs,  and  sheej. 

and  publishes  information  on  scientific  breeding,  hygieuK 

dairy  farming,  etc.     One  of  its  recent  achievements  is  ; 

treatise  on  effecti\-e  methods  of  combating  loco  weed  poison 

ing.     The  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  conducts  first-han^ 

investigations  and  experiments  in  the  adaptation  of  plant ^ 

new  and  old,  to  the  varied  conditions  of  climate,  soil,  an^ 

humidity  to  be  found  in  this  country.    Their  latest  triuni] . 

is  the  discovery  of  a  hardy  alfalfa  suited  to  the  cattle  ranchi 

of  Montana  and  the  Northwest,  and  a  Persian  clover  tli:i 

will  flourish  on  the  arid  mesas  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexicc 

This  achievement  cost  the  discoverer  a  twelve-year  hui 

over  the  sub- Arctic  plains  of  Siberia  and  the  arid  steppes  < 

Central  Asia.    The  Bureau  of  Soils  is  making  an  extenM\ 

inquiry  into  agricultural  conditions  of  every  state  in  li 

Union,  and  reports  are  issued,  county  by  county,  detailn 

the  constituent  properties  of  the  soils  represented,  tlu 

water-holding  capacity,  facilities  for  drainage  or  irrigati" 

climatic    influences,    crop   yields,    etc.     The   agricultur 

methods  in  use  and  the  changes  deemed  desirable  are  .li 

cussed  in  each  instance.     This  bureau  has  carried  <>n 

series  of  experiments  in  Utah,  California,  and  elsewhere. 

to  the  method  of  removing  alkali  from  soils  impreirii !'-( 

with  this  plant-killing  salt.     The  Bureau  of  Kntom-l"! 

is  engaged  in  a  campaign  against  destructive  insects,  .-u^ 


Conservation 


397 


as  the  gypsy  moth,  the  elm  beetle,  and  the  brown-tailed 
moth,  notorious  enemies  to  forest  growth,  and  cattle  pests, 
such  as  the  gadfly  and  the  buffalo  gnat.  The  scientists 
of  this  branch  of  the  service  discovered  the  sins  of  the 
mosquito  in  spreading  malana  and  yellow  fever,  and  the 
responsibility  of  the  house  fly  for  typhoid.  The  Bureau 
of  Chemistry  is  made  responsible  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  Pure  Food  and  Drug  law,  conducts  adulteration  tests, 
and  standardizes  drugs. 

It  has  been  demonstrated  that  under  suitable  rotation 
of  crops  the  drain  on  the  chemical  constituents  of  the  soil 
may  be  minimized,  and  that  the  introduction  of  nitrogen- 
bearing  plants  —  clover,  cow  peas,  and  alfalfa  —  may  do 
much  to  conserve  the  fertUity  of  the  fields.  Under  this 
beneficent  department,  new  varieties  of  corn  and  tobacco 
have  been  made  to  flourish  on  soils  formerly  regarded  as 
unproductive  ;  experiments  with  sugar  beets  have  proved 
that  this  crop  can  be  successfully  grown  through  a  wide 
belt  in  the  North  and  West ;  Egyjitian  cotton,  valuable  for 
its  long  staple  and  hardy  growth,  has  been  adapted  to  the 
uplands  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia ;  spring  wheat  has 
been  sown  in  the  Dakotas  and  macaroni  wheat  in  the 
semi-arid  plains,  adding  vast  areas  to  our  wheat  acreage ; 
the  navel  orange  and  irrigation  have  converted  the  deserts 
of  southern  California  into  a  prosperous  land  of  orchards. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  agricultural  col- 
leges have  set  about  the  systematic  education  of  the  Ameri- 
can farmer.  Bulletins  dealing  with  every  problem  ihat 
can  present  itself  to  the  cotton  ])lanter,  the  ranchman, 
market  gardener,  or  dairyman  may  be  had  free  on  applica- 
tion ;  the  information  is  given  in  sini|)le,  direct  fashion,  and 
the  improvements  proposed  are  such  as  can  be  followed  by 
a  man  of  small  capital  and  meager  education.  Model 
farms  are  operated  in  the  several  agricultural  districts, 
in  order  that  the  various  experiments  and  successes  may 
serve  as  object  lessons  to  a  farming  communitv-  Farm- 
ers' institutes  are  held  in  every  state  in  the  Union.  The 
attendance  in   1907    was   more  than  1,500,000,  and   the 


National 
Conservation 
Com..  Ill, 

108,   2t)t). 

Hopkins, 

Soil 

Fertility. 


Cyclopedia 
of  .Agricul- 
ture, IV, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Si! 


iff 


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i! 


1'       ' 


-it 


-M 


f  ( 


■    I 

II! 


i    i 


Fernow, 
Forestry 
in  U.  S. 


Fernow, 
Economics 
of  Forestry, 
Ch.  Xll. 


398      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

agricultural  coUeges  were  taxed  to  provide  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  lecturers.  Demonstration  trains  are  sent  through  the 
remoter  districts,  the  cars  being  fitted  up  with  exhibits 
indicating  the  latest  improvements  in  dairymg,  apiculture, 
viticulture,  the  best  results  attained  from  the  several  varie- 
ties of  wheat,  alfalfa,  corn,  etc. 

The  Forestry  Service.  — The  census   of    1870  was  the 
first  to  suggest  the  depletio  .  of  our  forest  area  and  the 
necessity  for  safeguarding  ..  e  future  timber  supply.    The 
report  attracted  the  attention  of  public-spinted  men,  an 
American  Forestry  Association  was  organized,  and  a  sys- 
tematic campaign  undertaken.    The  Timber  Culture  Act 
of  1873  was  intended  to  reforest  the  treeless  areas  west  of 
the  one  hundredth  meridian.     It  provided  that  a  man 
might  secure  title  to  a  quarter  section  in  the  pubhc  lands 
by  planting  forty  acres  of  timber  and  proving  a  ten-year 
growth.     The  terms  proved  too  difficult,  and  were  later 
modified  to  ten  acres  in  trees  and  an  eight-year  growth; 
but  even  so  the  actual  results  were  slight.     The  plantations 
died  for  lack  of  moisture  and  adequate  care,  and  many  titles 
were  secured  by  fraudulent  proofs.    The  act  was  repealet 
in  1891,  and  in  that  same  year  tb;  president  of  the  United 
States  was  empowered  to  create  forest  reserves  in  the  pubhc 
domain.     President  Harrison  proclaimed  four  such  reser- 
vations and  President  Cleveland  thirteen,  covering  a  tota 
area  of  17,500,000  acres,  while  President  Roosevelt  added 
150,000,000   acres  to  our   forest  domain.     There  are  to 
day  one  hundred  and  fifty  national  forests  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  area  so  reserved  amounts  to  162,000,000 
acres.     The  public  lands  segregated  for  forest  use  arc  lo- 
cated almost  wholly  in  the  Cordilleran  area,  and  he  m  three 
tiers  running  from  north  to  south  in  line  with  the  Continen- 
tal Divide,  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Cascade  ranges,  and 
the  Coast    range.    Not  all  this  land  is  forested;    somi 
of  it  is  fitted  to  agriculture,  a  large  proportion  to  pastura^t 
only,  and  some  of  it  doubtless  contains  important  mm'  ni 
deposits.     The  United  States  Geological  Survey  is  ennaij't 
m  classifying  and  delimiting  the  mineral  lands,  and  tlu 


Marking  L'nsoind  Trkf.s  for  riTTiNc.    Arapaho  National  Iorkj 


(Vril.K    ..K\/IM,    IN    WmIDWX    \\TIliN\l.    KoKkST,    ()Kf,(.l)N 


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Conservation 


399 


:    I 


Forest  Service  is  studying  the  surface  resources  with  a  view 
to  designating  their  most  effective  use. 

The  forest  law  of  1897  determined  that  the  several  reser- 
vations should  be  administered  with  a  view  to  utilizing 
the  surplus  product  of  grass  and  timber  while  conserving 
the  normal  growth.  The  task  was  intrusted  to  a  Bureau 
of  Forestry  under  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  an 
annual  appropriation  of  $15,000,000  is  now  assigned  to  its 
support.  The  Forestry  Service  is  organized  in  six  dis- 
tricts, with  headquarters  at  Missoula,  Ogden,  Denver, 
Albuquerque,  San  Francisco,  and  Portland.  A  forester 
is  placed  in  charge  of  each  district,  and  the  field  staff  com- 
prises some  1500  men.  The  several  functions  performed 
by  the  forest  service  are  (i)  Protection  against  forest  fires 
and  timber  thiev'es,the  special  function  of  the  forest  ranger. 
(2)  Timber  sales ;  disposal  of  mature,  dead,  or  insect-in- 
fected timber  undei*  suitable  conditions  as  to  logging,  saw- 
ing, transportation,  etc.  As  a  timber  merchant.  Uncle  Sam 
deals  by  preference  with  the  settlers  of  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, and  ninety  per  cent  of  the  sales  are  made  in  lots 
of  less  than  $100  value.  In  the  year  1908  the  timber  sales 
brought  in  a  revenue  of  only  $773,182,  but  30,000  permits 
for  free  use  were  issued  to  settlers,  prospectors,  schools, 
churches,  etc.  The  United  States  government  disposes  of 
more  lumber  than  any  forest  owner  except  the  Czar  of 
Russia.  (3)  Pasturage.  Districts  suitable  for  grazing  are 
leased  to  cattle  and  sheepmen  under  careful  restrictions 
as  to  overstocking.  The  government  ratio  is  ten  acres  to  a 
cow,  and  under  this  liberal  allowance  the  weight  and 
quality  of  the  animals  is  notably  superior  to  those  fed 
upon  the  open  range,  while  the  forage  growth  is  regaining 
its  pristine  luxuriance.  Here,  as  everywhere,  the  settlers 
and  home  builders  have  the  first  choice.  Fully  8,500,000 
animals  —  l.orses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats  —  were  pas- 
tured on  the  public  range  during  iqoS,  and  $962,829  was 
p  ijii  into  the  puhHc  trencnrj'  by  the  twenty-four  thou^-and 
owners.  (4)  Reforestation.  Great  care  is  taken  in  deter- 
mining the  trees  that  may  be  felled,  and  the  conservation 


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National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
95-126- 


Pinchot, 

Private 

Forests. 


400      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  young  growth  is  a  matter  of  prime  concern.  Devastated 
areas  are  replanted  with  species  adapted  to  special  condi- 
tions of  soil  and  climate,—  the  Douglas  fir  for  the  Wasatch 
Range,  the  yellow  pine  for  the  Sierras,  the  eucalyptus  foi 
the  arid  and  frostless  districts  of  California.  (5)  Conserva- 
tion of  stream  flow,  one  of  the  functions  prescribed  in  tin 
law  of  1897,  and  a  concern  of  the  Forest  Service  which  i; 
of  prime  importance  to  the  far  West,  where  fuel  is  scarct 
and  industry  must  rely  upon  water  power.  Special  atten 
tion  is  given  to  safeguarding  the  forest  cover  in  the  drainage 
basins  where  the  mountain  streams  have  their  source,  ir 
order  that  the  winter  precipitation  may  be  held  over  as  fai 
into  the  summer  as  possible,  thus  guarding  against  destruc 
tive  floods  and  guaranteeing  a  constant  flow. 

Three  fourths  of  our  forests  are  in  private  hands,  anc 
these  are  usually  the  best  stocked,  containing  four  fifth 
of  all  the  timber  in  the  country.  Scientific  forestry  mus 
be  practised  by  the  farmer,  the  timber  companies,  th 
owners  of  great  estates,  if  there  is  to  be  any  fundaments 
change  in  our  national  habits.  At  present  hardly  one  i)c 
cent  of  the  private  forest  lands  receive  adequate  care,  an 
fire  destroys  more  timber  in  the  farmer's  woodlots  than  o 
the  public  domain.  The  need  of  nationalizing  certa; 
timbered  areas  in  the  Eastern  states  is  becoming  eviden 
The  proposed  Appalachian  forest  reserve  would  enrich  tli 
tributary  region  by  conserving  an  important  timber  suppl; 
regulating  stream  flow,  and  preventing  farther  erosion  < 
adjacent  farm  lands. 

Reclamation  of  Agricultural  Land.— The  pressure  of  popi 
lation  on  the  food  supply  is  becoming  evident  in  the  Uniti 
States.  Our  exportation  of  agricultural  products  is  decHi 
ing,  the  prices  of  beef,  cereals,  hides,  wool,  etc.  are  nsm 
and  they  are  not  likely  to  fall  to  former  levels.  It  is  prol 
able  that  wheat  at  one  dollar  per  bushel  is  a  permanoi 
factor  in  our  national  economy.  Values  are  mountn 
from  year  to  year,  for  we  are  fast  reaching  the  limit  of  01 
cultivable  area,  while  the  demand  for  farms  is  enham( 
by  the  incoming  of  land-hungry  peasants  from  F.iir>i 


Conservation 


401 


American  farmers  are  beginning  to  migrate  to  the  Cana- 
dian Northwest,  where  unexploited  wheat  areas  await  cul- 
tivation. Sixty  thousand  emigrants  crossed  the  boundary 
line  in  1907  and  again  in  1908,  and  the  figure  mounted  to 
75,000  in  X909.  The  increased  value  of  farm  lands  is  due 
m  part  to  scientific  tillage,  resulting  in  larger  crops,  and  to 
the  capital  invested  in  improvements,  —  buildings,  fences, 
roads,  etc.  The  average  rise  in  capitalization  between 
1890  and  1900  is  estimated  at  twenty-five  per  cent,  between 
1900  and  1905  at  thirty  per  cent.  The  greatest  augmenta- 
tion of  value  has  taken  place  in  the  West  and  Southwest, 
but  the  older  sections  of  the  Union  have  experienced  a  con- 
siderable rise,  — South  Central,  40.2  per  cent,  North  Cen- 
tral, 35.3,  South  Atlantic,  36,  North  Atlantic,  13.5  per  cent. 

The  agricultural  portion  of  the  public  domain  is  prac- 
tically exhausted ;  some  400,000,000  acres  remain  in  jws- 
session  of  the  government,  but  of  this,  three  fourths  is  fit 
for  grazing  only.  The  supply  of  arable  land  is  being  rapidly 
appropriated,  having  been  sold  and  taken  up  by  home- 
steaders for  the  past  decade  at  the  rate  of  18,000,000  acres 
per  year.  As  we  approach  the  limit  of  our  national  in- 
heritance, men  seem  to  be  possessed  by  a  land  mania.  The 
opening  of  an  Indian  reservation  or  an  irrigation  project 
is  attended  by  crowds  of  homeseekers  eager  to  try  their 
chance  for  a  quarter  section  on  the  old,  easy  terms.  Pro- 
posals for  the  extension  of  the  cultivable  area  by  the  irriga- 
tion of  arid  lands  and  the  drainage  of  swamp  lands  readily 
command  attention. 

Irrigation  of  Arid  Lands.  —  Professor  Shaler  called  the 
Cnrdilleran  area  "  .he  curse  of  the  continent."  Ihroughout 
the  greater  part  of  this  mountainc  us  region,  the  rainfall  is 
inadequate  for  agriculture  or  for  forest  growth,  except  on 
the  west  slope  of  the  ranges,  where  the  warm  winds  from 
the  Pacific  precipitate  moisture  as  they  rise  to  cooler  alti- 
tudes. The  total  area  is  758,000.000  acres.  The  l.irger 
portion  is  rock  or  shale  or  sand,  and  quite  unfit  for  tillage, 
but  there  may  be  60,000,000  acres  of  fairly  level  and  fertile 
land  which  could  be  rendered  cultivable  by  irrigation, 
ao 


Holmes, 
Changes  in 
Farm  Values. 


Humphrey, 
What  is  the 
Matter  with 
our  Land 
Laws? 


Powell, 
Lands  of  the 
Arid  Region. 


Census,  IQOO, 
VI,  801-809. 


Brough, 
Irrigation 
in  Utah. 

National 
Conservation 

Com.,  I. 

05-91 ;  in, 

422. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
S9-9S- 

Meade, 
Irrigation 
Institutions, 
Ch.  II. 


402      /udastria/  History  of  the  United  States 

Where  soil  and  climate  are  suited,  and  a  water  supr 
available  these  arid  lands  are  highly  productive. 

Wat  on  has  been  practised  for  centuries  by  the  Fuel 
IndaJsalong  the  Rio  Grande  and  Gila  rivers  each  co 
mury  building  the  ditch  with  which  to  water  the  comr. 
Cornfields    while  the  irrigated  orchards  and  vineyards 
r  Franciscan  missions   in  southern  California  p- 
what  might  be  done  with  larger  resources.    The  first  s 
cesses  of  the  Mormons  in  Utah  have  been  repeated  1 
hundred  different  settlements,  until  in  iQOO  the  commi 
Ss  of  this  sect  had  more  than  6,000,000  acres  under 
igation.    The  first  attempt  of  the  Federal  governmen 
deal  with  the  problem  of  the  and  region  was  the  De 
L^d  Act  of  1877,  by  which  tracts  of  640  acres  were  off< 
at  $1  2  =;  per  acre,  on  condition  that  irrigation  be  attemp 
The  only  men  to  take  advantage  of  the  law  were  a 
and  sheep  ranchers  who  seized  the  oPP^^umty  to  get 
manent  title  to  their  headquarters,  and  speculative  in 
tion  companies  which  put  in  inadequate  waterworks, 
the  land  without  water  right,  or  charged  a  nionopoly  , 
for  the  water  supplied.      Land  title    and  water 
were   rendered   inseparable    in   the   Carey  Act  of   1 
This  wise  law  provides  that  any  one  of  the  arid  s 
may  appropriate    public    land    to   the  amount    of 
million  acres  in  suitable  tracts  and   authorize  the 
truction  of  irrigation  works  thereon  by  private  conipj 
The  engineering  plans  for  each  enterprise  must  be  appi 
bv  the  state  land  commission,  as  well  as  the  charge 
m.  ie  for  water  rights.    The  state  sells  the  land  to  sc- 
at fifty  cents  an  acre,  and  full  title  may  be  acquired 
thirty  days'  residence.    The  water  right  charge  vane, 
the  co^t  of  construction,  from  S30  to  S40  per  acre,  am 
be  paid  in  ten  annual  installments.     Ownersmp  1 
reservoirs,  canals,  dams,  etc.,  is  held  by  the  compan> 
these  payments  are  complete,  and  then  passes  to  the 
users'  association.     Seven  states.  Wyoming,  Idaho, 
tana,  Utah,  Colorado.  Arizona,  and  Cahforma,  have  a 
taken  advantage  of  the  Carey  Act,  and  New  Mex.< 


tes 

er  supply 

he  Pueblo 
each  com- 
le  common 
neyards  of 
lia  pro\cd 
e  first  suc- 
leated  in  a 

communi- 
\  under  ir- 
ernment  to 
the  Desert 
vere  offered 

attempted, 
were  cattle 
'  to  get  per- 
ative  irriga- 
rworks,  sold 
nopoly  price 
water  right 
.ct  of   1894- 

arid  states 
unt  of  one 
ze  the  con- 
:  conipanie?. 

be  approved 
charge  to  be 
nd  to  settlers 
cqnired  after 
;e  varies  with 
ere,  and  may 
jrship  in  the 
ompany  until 
5  to  the  water 

Idaho.  Mon- 
,  have  already 
N  Mexico  ani! 


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ConsenHxtion 


403 


Texas  have  both  applied  for  a  land  grant  in  order  to  de- 
velop their  irrigation  possibilities.  Thus  far  only  fertile 
lands  and  easily  irrigated  have  been  taken  up,  and  the 
projects  now  under  cultivation  are  highly  successful.  The 
Carey  Act  does  not,  however,  provide  for  interstate  pro- 
jects, nor  does  it  lead  to  any  large  and  comprehensive  plan 
of  conserving  the  water  resources  of  the  vast  region  con- 
cerned. Again,  the  responsibility  of  maintaining  the  irri- 
gating plant  after  the  constructing  company  has  sur- 
rendered title,  devolves  upon  the  farmers,  who,  while  they 
can  readily  finance  ordinary  repairs,  would  be  ruined  by  a 
destructive  flood. 

In  the  Reclamation  Act  of  1902  the  Federal  government 
assumed  the  task  of  irrigating  tracts  of  arid  land  not  other- 
wise provided  for,  and  the  revenue  from  sales  of  public 
lands  in  the  United  States,  amounting  to  about  $10,000,000 
per  year,  was  devoted  to  this  purpose.    The  initial  expenses 
are  met  from  this  fund,  but  the  cost  of  construction  in  each 
case  is  assessed  on  the  lands  to  which  water  is  furnished, 
and  must  be  met  ultimately  by  the  settlers  in  the  ten  first 
years  of  cultivation.    The  returns  are  used  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  new  projects  within  the  same  state.     The  provisions 
of  the  Homestead  Act  apply  to  the  lands  irrigated  by  the 
government.     A  citizen  of  the  United  States  may  acquire 
a  title  to  a  tract  of  twenty,  forty,  or  eighty  acres  (the  area 
being  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  soil)  on  condition 
of  five  years'  residence  and  the  bringing  of  half  the  area  un- 
der cultivation.    The  water  right  charge  varies  from  S20 
to  $30  per  acre,  according  to  cost  of  construction.     The 
water  supply  is  inalienable  from  the  land,  and  the  govern- 
ment allowance  of  three  acre-feet  per  year,  equivalent  to 
thirty-six  inches  of  rainfall,  is  sufficient  for  any  crop  suited 
to  the  climate.     The  execution  of  irrigation  projects  under  Meade 
this  law  was  intrusted  to  the  Reclamation  Ser\-ice,  a  bureau   ^''"S''^' 
organized  under  the  Department  of  the  Interior.     During  '■''"^' 
the  eight  years  of  its  activity,  twenty-eight  projects  have 
heen  completed,  at  a  cost  of  $70,000,000,  and  1,910,000 
acres  have  been  brought  under  cultivation,  fully  half  of  this 
area  under  direct  irrigation. 


Newell, 
Irrigation. 


Bien,  Legal 
Problems. 


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404 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Beneficent  as  the  Reclamation  Act  has  proved,  certain 
difficulties  have  become  apparent  in  its  operation.     The 
mnual  revenue  derived  from  public  land  sales  is  inadequate 
>  all  the  projects  set  on  foot,  the  work  has  been  delayed 
unduly,  and  some  of  the  settlers  who  filed  in  good  faith  for 
the  five-year  residence  term  are  still  waiting   for  water, 
because  money  is  lacking  to  complete  the  canals.    The  Rec- 
lamation Service  worked  out  a  plan  for  meeting  this  situa- 
tion e  g  the  engineer  in  charge  was  authorized  to  arranf,'e 
with  the  homesteaders  to  build  the  canals,  paying  for  then- 
labor  in  certificates  of  indebtedness,  and  Secretary  Garliekl 
agreed  to  receive  this  "  water  scrip  "  in  payment  for  the 
annual  water  charge  as  it  fell  due.     The  plan  seemed  justi- 
lied  by  its  economies.     Labor  that  was  runnmg  to  waste 
was  brought  to  bear  where  it  was  most  needed,  and  the 
farmers  were  enabled  to  forestall  their  obligations  to  the 
.Tovernncnt  in  their  one  available  asset.     This  method  ot 
canal  construction  was  put  in  operation  on  six  different 
projects,  and  some  $300,000  had  been  issued  m  water  5cni> 
when  the  legaUty  of  the  procedure  was  called  in  question, 
and  Attorney  General  Wickersham  ruled  that  the  device 
was  illegal,  since  not  specifically  authorized  by  the  Rec- 
lamation Act.     Congress  has  since  met  the  financial  diffi- 
culties involved  by  voting  an  issue  of  $20,000,000  for  tlu 
completion  of  the  work  already  undertaken  and  m  immedi 
ate  orospect,  this  issue  to  be  in  the  form  of  certificates  ol 
indebtedness  guaranteed  by  future  revenue  from  land  sale? 
The  sum  total  of  irrigated  lands  in  the  United  State 
to-day  is  7,500,000  acres  in  the  arid  region,  275,000  m  th( 
semi-arid,  and  3000  in  the  humid  section  east  of  the  om 
hundredth  meridian.  , 

National  Drainage  of  Swamp  Lands.  -  Excess  of  water  is  a  prob 

Conservation  lem  only  less  difficult  to  the  agriculturist  than  scanty  rain 
Com.,  III.       ^^jj     T^i^g  i^j^js  unfitted  for  agriculture  by  flooded  con 
'""'''■         ditions,  more  or  le^^s  permanent,  amount    to    75.o°o-°^ 
acres,  e.g.  the  "  Dismals"  of  Virginia,  the  bayous  of  th 
Carolinas,  Florida,  and  the  Gulf  coast,  the  deltas  of  'h 
Mississippi  River,  the  swamp  areas  of  the  great  inter. 


-iii— 


l"5l_ 


Irrigation  of  Westi  k.\  Lam 


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Consetfation 


405 


valley  of  California.     By  an  act  of  1850,  the  swamp  lands 
belonging  to  the  Unitefl  States  government  were  made  over 
to  the  states  in  which  they  lay,  on  condition  that  the  funds 
derived  from  their  sale  be  used  to  reclaim  them.     Under 
this  law  65,000,000  acres  have  been  disposed  of,  to  private 
individuals  in  the  main,  although  canals,  railroads,  schools, 
and  other  public  institutions  have  to  some  degree  shared 
in  the  benefit.     Drainage  operations  have  been  carried  on 
in   rather  haphazard   fashion   by  drainage  commissions, 
levee  boards,  and  private  companies,  and  the  results  are  far 
from  satisfactory.     The  cost  of  draining  arable  land  by 
ditches  may  be  anywhere  from  $15  t<^  S,?o  an  acre,  with  an 
annual  maintenance  charge  of  from  Si   to  S3.     Levees 
cost  indefinitely  more,  and  pumping  machinery,  when  nec- 
essary, adds  an  expensive  item ;  but  o\erflowed  lands  are 
usually  rich  in  nitrogen  and  well  rei)ay  the  cost  of  reclama- 
tion.    Appeal  hai.  been  made  to  the  Federal  government 
to  aid  certain  large  drainage  projects,  such  as  are  required 
in  northern  Minnesota,  in  the   lands  overflowed  by  the 
Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  rivers,  in  the  Yazoo  delta, 
and    along    the    Tallahatchie.     The    Inland    Waterways 
Commission   (1908)   recommended  that  the  government 
undertake  the  reclamation  of  swamp  lands  on  the  ground 
that  not  only  would  highly  fertile  areas  be  recovered  to 
cultivation   and    malaria-b.eeding   swamps    be   rendered 
sanitary,  but  that  the  na\igability  of  the  rivers  concerned 
would  be  greatly  enhanced.     Such  projects  should  be  under- 
taken on  a  scale  commensurate  with  Federal  enterprise  in 
order  that  unity  of  plan  and  i)ernianent  results  may  be  at- 
tained.    A  bill   is  now  lieforc  Congress  (introduced  by 
Senator  Flint  of  California)  proposing  that  the  proceeds  of 
public  land  sales  in  the  non-arid  states  be  dcNoted  to  the 
reclamation  of  these  drowned  areas,  the  land  to  be  made 
o\er  to  homesteaders  in  small  tracts,  and  the  cost  of  drain- 
aiie  to  constitute  a  first  lien  on  the  land  and  to  be  repaid 
J>y  the  farmers  in  installments,  after  the  precedent  of  the 
Keclamation  Act. 
Dry   Farming.  —  Irrigation    is    restricted    to   districts 


1  •!'« 


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McDonald, 

Dry 

Farming. 


Scofield, 
Dry 

Farming  in 
the  Great 


406      Imhistrial  History  of  the  United  States 

where  water  is  available  and  where  the  topography  is  such 
that  the  lands  lie  below  the  river  or  reservoir  from  which 
the  supply  is  drawn.    Pumping  to  higher  levels  is  a  physi- 
cal possibility,  but  is  too  expensive  for  any  but  the  most 
productive  regions.     There  is  a  vast  extent  of  fertile  coun- 
try lying  west  of  the  one  hundredth  meridan  where  these 
conditions  can  rarely  be  found.     The  Great  Plains  -vvcsl- 
ern  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  eastern  Colorado  and  northern 
Texas  -  were  long  the  despair  of  agriculturists.     The  ram- 
fall  is  scant,  varying  from  ten  to  twenty  inches,  the  rivers  are 
shallow  and  inconstant,  and  the  land  is  hilly  and  broken, 
yet  the  soil,  a  deep  alluvial  loam,  would  yield  heaxy  crops 
if  sufficient  moisture  were  available.     This  region  has  been 
brought  under  cultivation  by  a  special  type  of  agriculture,  - 
dry  farming,  —  a  process  calculated  to  conserve  m  the  soil 
itself  whatever  precipitation  occurs.     The  field  is  plowed 
in  the  autumn,  just  before  the  rainy  season,  to  a  depth  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  inches,  in  order  to  allow  the  water  to  soak 
through  to  the  subsoil.     In  the  spring  when  the  surface 
hardens,  it  is  plowed  and  harrowed    into    a   fine  mulch, 
forming  a  dust  blanket  which  effectually  prevents  evapora- 
tion.    The  seed  is  drilled  in  deep,  and  a  smaller  amount  pcr 
acre  is  used  in  order  to  economize  water  and  nitrogen  and 
leave  each  plant  adequate  nutrition.     In  all  but  the  In-t 
lands,  a  summer  fallow  should  be  allowed  every  other  year. 
The  method  was  used  first  on  the  wheat  ranches  of  Califcr- 
nia  some  sixty  years  ago.  and  it  is  now  successfully  prac- 
tised in  the  Columbia  River  Basin  and  on  the  wesUrii 
slopes  of  the  .anges  that  intersect  the  desert  regions  of  Ua 
and  Nevada.    It  is  admirably  adapted  to  cereals  and  t. 
certain  forage  crops,  such  as  clover  and  cowpeas,  and  Iruil 
orchards  may  be  successfully  developed  if  water  ca-  ^-  sup 
plied  in  abundance  for  the  first  three  years  of  growth.     I  'n 
farming  should  be  properly  regarded  as  supplementary  t.wr 
rigation.  a  means  of  bringing  umler  tillage  such  portion--  » 
the  farm  as  cannot  be  provider!  with  water.     The  intrnduc 
tion  of  drought-resisting  pla-its  and  trees  —  durum  win  at 
kaffir  corn,  and   Persian   clover  -  will   doubtless  esicn^ 


Conservatioi 


407 


the  area  of  its  usefulness.     The  Department  of  Agriculture 
has  established  an  office  of  Dry  Land  Agriculture  which  is 
engaged  in  making  experiments  as  to  the  best  methods  of 
cultivation,  while  the  states  of  Utah,  Colorado,  and  Wyo- 
ming have  provided  for  model  farms  as  a  means  of  demon- 
strating its  practicability.     It  seems  to  be  proven  that  a   Xaiionai 
larger  holding  than  the  quarter  section  of  the  homestead   Conservation 
entry  is  essential  to  the  best  success.     The  Mondell  Act   ^'"" '  ^'  ^'*- 
of  1909  increases  the  homesteader's  claim  to  .^520  acres,  in 
case  of  filings  on  non-timbered,  non-mineral,  non-irrigable 
land  in  the  arid  states,  and  requires  no  residence  term,  but 
evidence  of  successful  cultivation  instead. 


The  Conservation  Movement 

The  inceptif  :*  -^  the  movement  for  conservation  of  our  Pin.hot. 
national  resource,  should  be  credited  to  GifTord  Pinchot    Government 
late  Chief  Forester  of  the  United  States.     He  it  is  who  in-    ^^^'^ 
duced  the  National  Academy  of  Science  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee (1896;  to  investigate  -nd  report  on  the  forest  policy 
of  the  country.     Gifford  Pii  chot  and  F.  H.  Neweh,  the 
efficient  head  of  the  Reclamation  Service,  suggested  to 
President  Roosevelt  the  appointment  of  the  Public  Lands 
Commission  {1903),  which  made  a  thoroughgoing  inquiry 
into  the  use  and  abuse  of  our  national  domain,  especially 
as  regards  grazing  and  agriculture.     This  in  turn  led  to 
thf  appointment  of  the  Inland  Waterways  Commission.   Kept 
which    suggested    the    Conference    of    Governors.     This 
conference  was  convened  by  President  Roosjvelt  at  the 
White  House  in  May,  iqoS,  and  every  state  and  territory 
in  the  Union  was  represented  by  one  or  more  delegates. 
The  immediate  consequence  was  the  appointment  of  forty 
^t:uo   conser\-ation   commissions   for   local   work,   and   a 
National  Conservation  Commission  to  promote  the  general 
interest.     The  great  achievement  of  the  Federal  commis- 
-iun  has  been  the  thr.-e-volume  re{x>rt  submitted  to  Con- 
gress in  January,  1909.     In  the  compilation  of  this  report, 
the  several  Federal  bureaus  were  requisitionetl,  and  the 


Conference 
of (iovernors 


M'- 


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I  'if  '  . 

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t-::i'    I 


III 


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i    i 


408      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

experts  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  the  For- 
estry Service,  and  the  Agricultural  Department,  contrib- 
uted their  accumulated  stores  of  information.  The  result 
was  the  first  scientific  inventory  of  the  natural  resources 
of  the  United  States  ever  made,  and  the  interesting  ex- 
hibit of  wastes  and  latent  possibilities  forms  the  groundwork 
for  progressive  legislation  along  sound  and  rational  lines. 
In  his  special  message  transmitting  the  report  to  Congress, 
President  Roosevelt  said :  — 

"  We  know  that  our  population  is  now  adding  about  one 
fifth  to  its  numbers  in  ten  years,  and  that  by  the  middle 
of  the  present  century  perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lion Americans,  and  by  its  end  very  many  miUions  more, 
must  be  fed  and  clothed  from  the  products  of  our  soil. 
With  the  steady  growth  in  population  and  the  still  more 
rapid  increase  in  consumption,  our  people  will  hereafter 
make  greater  and  not  less  demands  per  capita  upon  all  the 
natural  resources  for  their  liveUhood,  comfort,  and  con- 
venience. It  is  high  time  to  reaUze  that  our  responsibility 
to  the  coming  millions  is  like  that  of  parents  to  their  chil- 
dren, and  that  in  wasting  our  resources  we  are  wronging  our 
descendants."  u     1      1 

National  The  recommendations  of  the  Commission  for  the  land 

Conservation  policy  of  the  future  follow :  — 

1.  "  Every  part  of  the  public  lands  should  be  devoted  to 
the  use  which  will  best  subserve  the  interests  of  the  whole 

people. 

2.  "  The  classification  of  all  public  lands  is  necessary 
for  their  administration  in  the  interests  of  the  people. 

3.  "  The  timber,  the  minerals,  and  the  surface  of  tlic 
public  lands  should  be  disposed  of  separately. 

4.  "  Public  lands  more  valuable  for  conserving  water 
supply,  timber,  and  natural  beauties  or  wonders  than  for 
agriculture  should  '  .  withheld  from  all  .  .  .  except  min- 
eral entry.  , 

5    "  Title  to  the  surface  of  the  remaining  non-minorai 

public  lands  should  be  granted  only  to  actual  home  makers. 

0.  "  Pending  the  transfer  of  title  to  the  remaining  put)lic 


Com..  Bui 
letin  4,  p.  1 2 


Conservation 


409 


lands  they  should  be  administered  by  the  Government 
and  their  use  should  be  allowed  in  a  way  to  prevent  or  con- 
tro'  waste  and  monopoly." 

Our  public  land  laws  as  a  whole  do  not  subserve  the  best 
interests  of  the  nation,  and  they  should  be  modified  so  far 
as  may  be  required  to  bring  them  into  conformity  with  the 
foregoing  outline  of  policy.     The  Homestead  Law,  which 
proved  so  beneficial  to  the  settlers  of  the  Middle  West,  is 
inapplicable  to  the  arid  states,  because  here  irrigation  is  a 
sine  qua  non  and  this  cannot  be  achieved  without  capital. 
The  Reclamation  Service  wisely  recommends  that  no  man 
undertake  to  file  on  a  government  project  without  at  least 
S2000  with  which  to  make  the  necessary  improvements. 
Timber  for  fuel  and  for  building  purposes  are  costly  items, 
while  food  and  family  supplies  cannot  be  so  readily  pro- 
vided as  on  the  pioneer  farms  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
The  law  has  ceased  to  be  advantageous  to  home  seekers, 
and  is  being  utilized  by  timber  companies  and  mining  syn- 
dicates to  secure  title  to  large  tracts  of  forest  and  mineral 
land.     The  process  is  easy  ;  homestead  entries  are  made  by 
the  employees  of  the  company  and  other  dummy  homestead- 
ers, fraudulent  proof  of  residence  is  brought,  and  the  title 
when  secured  is  made  over  to  the  company  for  some  small 
consideration.     Under  the  mineral  land  laws  valuable  depos- 
its are  being  taken  up  by  private  persons  at  mere  nominal 
rates ;  gold,  silver,  copper,  lead  and  zinc  at  the  "  double 
minimum"  of  $2.50  an  acre,  while  coal  lands  may  be  had  at 
from  $10  to  $20  an  acre  according  to  distance  from  market 
and  transportation  facilities.     On  these  very  Uberal  term-, 
the  mineral  resources  of  the  country  are  being  rapidly 
monopolized.     Seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  iron  ore  in  the 
Lake  Superior  and  south  Appalachian  fields  belongs  to  the 
I'nited  States  Steel  Corporation.     The  coal  lands  of  the 
public  domain  in  Utah,  New  Mexico,  and  Alaska,  are  being 
I'ought  up  by  the  American  Smelting  Company,  in  defiance 
of  the  limitations  on  the  area  that  may  he  held  by  any  one 
man  or  group  of  men.     The  mining  of  phosphate  rock,  so 
itKlispensable  to  the  future  of  agriculture  in  this  country, 


Kept. 
Bureau  of 
Corpora- 
tions, Lumber 
Iiuiuatry. 


National 

Conservation 

Com,, 

I.  yo-gs  ; 

III,  387-417. 

571- 


Investigation 
of  Dept,  of 
Interior 
and  Forestry 

Servi-e. 


I 


,  I 


'  1 


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I.; 


I  T 

III 


Im 


n  1 


410      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

is  not  as  yet  covered  by  the  law.  The  Eastern  deposits  have 
passed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  central  government,  but 
there  are  large  deposits  on  the  public  uomain,  in  Utah, 
Wyoming,  and  Colorado  where  future  demand  will  be  great. 
In  the  granting  of  claims  to  these  phosphate  lands  the  sur- 
face title  should  be  separated  from  the  mining  rights,  so  that 
arable  areas  can  be  homesteaded,  while  the  mining  rights 
should  be  leased,  not  sold,  with  stipulations  as  to  royalty 
payment,  conservation  of  waste,  and  non-exportation  of 
the  product.  The  maximum  price  of  coal  lands  should 
be  raised  in  proportion  to  the  royalty  that  might  be  de- 
rived if  they  were  private  property. 

The  protection  of  the  rights  of  the  people  in  the  public 
domain  is  far  more  important  than  the  immealate  exploita- 
tion of  its  wealth.     Private  enterprise  should  be  encouraged  ; 
not  so  private  monopoly.     Public  ownership  and  operation 
of  coal  lands,  water  power,  etc.,  find  few  advocates;  but 
public  control  and  legislative  limits  on  private  enterprise 
are  essential  to  the  future  well-being  of  our  nation.     In  the 
message  abo\e  quoted.  President  Roosevelt  said  truly,  "  If 
we  allow  great  industrial  organizations  to  exercise  unregu- 
lated control  of  the  means  of  production  and  the  necessa- 
ries of  life,  we  deprive  the  Americans  of  to-day  and  of  the 
future  of  industrial  liberty,  a  right  no  less  precious  and 
vital  than  political  freedom.     Industrial  liberty  was  a  fruit 
of  political  liberty,  and  in  turn  has  become  one  of  its  chitf 
supports  ;  and  exactly  as  we  stand  for  political  democracy, 
so  we  must  stand  for  industrial  democracy." 
National  The  Conservation  of  Water  Power.  -  In  %iew  of  the 

Conservation  early  exhaustion  of  the  coal  measures,  the  utilization  of  the 
motor  power  latent  in  our  rivers  becomes  a  problem  of  the 
utmost  importance.  The  direct  use  of  water  power  throufzh 
the  medium  of  the  water  wh  el  has  been  practised  for  a 
thousand  years,  but  the  transformation  of  this  gravity  pro- 
peller into  electrical  energy  is  the  achievement  of  the  pres- 
ent generation.  By  turbine  wheels,  dynamos,  and  tra?:-- 
formers,  the  force  of  falling  water  is  converted  into  enerj;y 
which  may  be  transmitted  along  a  cable  to  distant  mines, 


Com.,  II, 
141-179 


Conservation 


411 


factories,  transportation  and  lighting  systems,  so  that  re- 
mote and  inaccessible  mountain  torrents  are  made  to  serve 
populous  cities.  The  present  limit  of  distance  is  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  miles,  but  this  will  soon  be  extended. 
Niagara  Falls  to-day  furnishes  light  and  power  to  Buffalo, 
Rochester,  and  Toronto.  In  the  near  future  this  mighty 
force  may  be  carried  five  hundred  miles,  as  far  as  Norfolk, 
Va.,  and  Detroit,  Mich.  The  generation  of  hydraulic 
power  has  been  carried  to  its  highest  development  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  The  torrential  rivers  of  the  Sierras  and  the 
Cascades  furnish  one  third  the  water  power  of  the  United 
States,  and  this  latent  source  of  industrial  energy  is  being 
utilized  to  the  very  best  advantage.  One  miner's  inch  of 
water  is  made  to  generate  energy  equivalent  to  three  and  a 
third  units  of  horse  power.  Since  the  cost  of  developing 
electricity  by  water  power  is  fifteen  per  cent  less  than  the 
cost  by  steam,  this  new  industrial  factor  augurs  much  for 
the  future  of  the  Pacific  states. 

An  electric  power  plant  requires  little  labor,  but  expen- 
sive machinery  and  a  great  capital  investment.  This 
is  not  an  enterprise  therefo-e  with  which  settlers  as  indi- 
viduals or  in  association  can  do  much,  but  it  offers  an 
attractive  field  for  corporate  capital.  The  tendency  toward 
concentration  of  ownership  in  water  power  plants  has 
beer  marked  in  the  past  decade.  The  estimate  made 
by  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  in  January, 
1909,  indicated  that  thirty-three  i)er  cent  of  the  developed 
power  (1,827,000  H.P.  out  of  5,300,000  H.P.)  is  owned 
or  controlled  by  thirteen  principal  syndicates.  When  one 
realizei,  that  within  one  hundred  years  all  the  wheels 
and  engines  of  the  United  States  must  be  run  by  electric 
motors,  and  that  even  now  the  industries  of  the  Cordilleran 
region  are  wholly  dependent  upon  this  source  of  power,  the 
folly  of  intrusting  the  disposition  of  hydraulic  energ>'  to 
I)rivate  hands  without  restriction  becomes  evident.  We  are 
Dnly  just  now  awaking  to  the  fact  th.at  p<nver  lites  should  be 
leased,  not  sold  or  given  away,  and  that  the  privilege  of 
using  this  natural  source  of  wealth  should  be  granted  on 


Hutchinson, 

Long 

Distance 

Electric 

Power  Trans 

mission. 


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I  ; 

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President's 

Message, 


United 
States. 


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412      Industry  I  History  of  the  United  States 

terms  that  will  consene  the  rights  of  thi  public  to  adequate 
service  at  a  reasonable  charge.  The  f'ederal  government 
has  supervision  of  interstate  waterways,  navigable  rivers, 
and  streams  that  flow  through  the  national  forests  or  the 
public  domain,  and  may  therefore  determine  the  conditions 
under  which  torrents  and  cataracts  occurring  within  this 
jurisdiction  may  be  used.  The  law  of  1906  vested  in  Con- 
gress the  disposition  of  all  such  water  powers,  and  that 
Wate'/'  *'°^'  these  grants  might  be  made  conditional  on  the  meeting  of 
Power  in  the  certain  specifications,  as  in  the  case  of  other  franchises, 
would  seem  to  be  a  reasonable  inference.  Acting  on  this 
supposition.  President  Roosevelt  vetoed  bills  conceding 
rights  to  construct  dams  and  de\elop  power  on  the  Rainy 
River,  Minn.,  and  the  James  River,  Mo.,  stating  his  con- 
viction that  every  license  should  be  granted  for  a  limited 
term,  fifty  years  at  the  utmost,  that  each  grant  should  be 
revocable  if  the  intention  to  utilize  possibilities  to  the  full 
was  not  made  sure,  and  that  fees  be  imposed,  adjusted  to 
the  earning  capacity  of  the  plant. 

Conservation  Challenged.  —  President  Roosevelt's  ad- 
ministration was  pledged  heart  and  soul  to  the  conserva- 
tion of  national  resources.    The  more  Uteral  interpretation 
of  the  laws  under  which  the  Forestry  Service,  the  Rec- 
lamation   Service,  and  the   Land  Office  were  operating, 
has  given  rise  to  widespread  suspicion  of  lukewarmness  in 
this  cause  on  the  part  of  President  Taft's  appointees.    The 
cancelling  of  the  water  scrip  agreement  has  brought  dis- 
tress upon  the  homesteaders  on  the  government  irrigation 
projects,  the  appropriation  made  for  the  rangers'  schools 
has  been  withdrawn,  the  practice  of  setting  aside  rangers' 
stations  in  the  national  lorests  has  been  denounced,  the 
James  River  bill  has  again  beeu  brought  forward  in  the 
Senate,  the  good  faith  of  the  Secrciaiy  of  the  Interior  in 
clear-listing  certain  coal  claims  in  Alaska,  suspected  of  beinji 
fraudulent,  has  been  questioned,  and  the  President's  right 
to  withdraw  lands  from  homestead  entry  in  the  public  in- 
terest has  been  challenged.     The  pros  and  cons  have  been 
fully  brought  out  in  a  Congressional  investigation  of  the 


Conservation 


413 


Department  of  the  Interior  and  the  Bureau  of  Forestry. 
The  result  may  be  regarded  as  inconclusive,  because  of  the 
fundamental  difference  of  opinion  between  the  men  who 
beUeve  in  allowing  the  greatest  possible  freedom  to  indi- 
vidual enterprise  and  those  who  hold  that  private  interests 
must  be  regulated  where  the  public  well-being  needs  to  be 
guarded.  Congress  has  gone  far  toward  committing  the 
government  to  the  policy  of  control  by  authorizing  the 
President  to  withdraw  public  lands  from  private  use,  tem- 
porarily or  permanently,  whene\cr  the  conservation  of 
forests  or  grazing  lands,  water  power,  irrigation  possibili- 
ties, or  scenic  beauty  is  deemed  to  be  at  stake.  In  accord- 
ance with  this  law.  President  Taft  has  withdrawn  (19 10) 
from  mineral  entry  71,500,000  acres  of  public  lands  sup- 
posed to  contain  coal,  phosphate,  or  petroleum,  or  to  fur- 
nish valuable  water  power  sites.  All  this  land  is  open  to 
agricultural  enry,  but  the  terms  on  which  mining  and 
development  rights  will  be  conceded  are  yet  to  be  deter- 
mined by  Congress. 


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Suggestions  to  Teachers 


The  industrial  history  of  the  United  States  is  a  large  and  complex 
subject  and  can  hardly  be  rendered  both  interesting  and  instructive 
within  the  limitations  of  a  textbook.  The  author  cannot  do  more 
than  furnish  a  skeleton  which  the  instructor  must  clothe  and  vitalize 
with  the  means  best  suited  to  his  students.  Their  caliber  will  de- 
termine the  character  of  lectures  and  supplementary  reading. 

For  high-school  students,  local  history  and  familiar  conditions 
should  be  made  the  point  of  departure  for  the  study  of  national 
development.  The  number  of  publications  treating  local  history 
from  the  economic  standpoint  is  fortunately  on  the  increase.  Such 
material  may  be  culled  from  the  numerous  town  and  state  histories, 
but  a  more  philosoiihical  if  more  general  treatment  may  be  had  in 
such  works  as  Weeden,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  Eng- 
land; BoLLES,  History  of  Pennsylvania;  Bruce,  Economic  History 
of  Virginia ;  McCrady,  History  of  South  Carolina ;  Raper,  History 
of  North  Carolina;  Ballagh,  Economic  History  of  the  South  (in 
preparation) ;  Coman,  Economic  History  of  the  Far  West  (in  prepa- 
ration); Hittell,  History  of  California;  Meanv,  Stc^te  of  Wash- 
ington; Schafer,  Pacific  Northwest.  The  story  of  a  poctroad,  a 
canal,  or  a  railroad  may  often  serve  to  illustrate  transportation 
problems,  and  valuable  material  is  aflforded  by  Hurlburt's  Historic 
Highway  Series  and  by  such  monographs  as  Ward's  Chesapeake 
and  Ohio  Canal;  Benton's  Wabash  Trade  Route.  The  history  of 
water  transportation  is  graphically  depicted  in  Ogg,  The  Opening  of 
the  Mississippi;  Matthews,  Remaking  of  the  Mississippi;  Chan- 
NING,  The  Great  Lakes;  Bibbins,  The  Chesapeake.  The  new 
Waterway  Series  published  by  Putnam's  sets  forth  the  historical  and 
economic  significance  of  our  principal  rivers,  e.g.  the  Connecticut,  the 
Hudson,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Niagara,  the  Ohio,  the  Columbia, 
the  Colorado.  The  evolution  of  a  great  railway  system  may  be 
deduced  from  special  treatises  such  as  Wilson's  Pennsylvania 
Railroad;  Smalley's  Northern  Pacific;  Spearman's  Strategy  of 
Great  Railroads. 

If  the  immediate  environment  does  not  offer  suggestive  material, 
the  thread  of  personal  interest  may  be  followed  in  the  discussion  o' 
the  economic  achievements  of  such  old-time  entrepreneurs  as  Governor 
Winthrop  of  Massachusetts,  Governor  Spotswood  of  \'irginia,  such 
colonizers  as  Penn  and  Oglethorpe,  such  statesmen  as  Franklin, 

415 


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416      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Washington,  Jefferson,  Gallatin,  Clay,  Benton,  Lincoln,  Roosevelt, 
such  modern  captains  of  industry  as  McCormlck,  McKay,  Cyrus 
Field,  Edison,  Harriman,  Rockefeller,  J.  J.  Hill,  J.  P.  Morgan. 

Moreover,  the  industrial  novel  is  not  to  be  despised,  provided  it 
is  based  on  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  conditions  depicted.  The 
following  are  suggested. 

BisLAND,  A  Candle  of  Understanding  (a  sugar  plantation  in 
Louisiana) ;  Churchill,  The  Crossing  (pioneer  days  in  Kentucky) ; 
FooTE,  Coeur  d'Alene  (the  silver  miners  of  Idaho) ;  Glasgow,  The 
Deliverance  (a  tobacco  plantation  in  Virginia) ;  Kemp,  Matt,  Boss 
Tom  (the  anthracite  coal  miners) ;  Kixgsley,  Westward  Ho  (!■  ng- 
lish  buccaneers  on  the  Spanish  Main) ;  Xorris,  The  Octopus  (the 
wheat  ranches  of  California);  The  Pit  (the  wheat  market  of 
Chicago) ;  Parkes,  The  Magnetic  North  (gold-seekers  in  Alaska) ; 
RiCHARDSOM,  The  Long  Day  (women  wage-earners  in  New  York) , 
Sinclair,  The  Jungle  (beef  packers  of  Chicago) ;  Stimson,  F.  J., 
King  Noanet  (indentured  servants  in  colonial  Virginia  and  town 
lands  in  Massachusetts) ;  Be^jton,  On  Many  Seas  (the  American 
sailor's  experiences) ;  Winter,  A  F'rize  to  the  Hardy  (wheat  farms  of 
Minnesota) ;  Wright,  Where  <"  ipper  was  King  (copper  mining  on 
Lake  Superior);  Coolidge,  Hidden  Water  (cattle  and  sheep  wars  in 
Arizona) ;    Garland.  Tlie  Forest  Ranger ;  The  Lion's  Paw. 

Biography,  auiobio^jraphy,  and  journals  of  travel  may  be  even 
more  illuminating,  r^^.  Wkvcv.,  H.  A.,  Daniel  Boone  and  the  Wilder- 
ness Road;  Dana,  Two  Years  before  the  Mast;  DuBois,  Souls  of 
Black  Folk;  Washingtox,  Fii  rom  Slavery;  Woolman's  Journal; 
Franklin's  .^utobiofcraphy ;  Sherman.  Recollections  of  Forty 
Years;  Van  ^  orst.  The  W.nman  Whn  Toils;  Talbot,  Samuel 
Chapman  .Vrmsrrong;  Jwies  ..r%— .  Ljiter<  rom  America;  BiR- 
BECK,  Journey  m  America  ;  T  «"' 
Last  Ten  Years;  ^Iarxink': 
United  States;    Bovi.es,  Ai-"Hri  :^ 

Local  interest  ma.   rendtr-  :■. -T^tiMe 
try,  agriculturt. 
excellent  treai;-' 
Hammond,  T 


<ir 


'^u^~-     Recollections  of  the 
-    in    \merica;    Chevalier, 

CTtBJtmt 

■r;^  -run-  of  a  special  indits- 
n\,  and  for  this  some 


Cyclopedia  of  A 

LINGER,   Book  (i 

PON,  Romance  t 
Industry;  Rr' 
MrLAURiN,  Skr 
of  the  Standard. 
Oil  Companv: 
of  the  World 
Ages;   ViRTtn 


manuiar.-tirrac. 
-  ,irr    >v;uiann'      ■,. 

Carton  CmtJiTf  .mi   ^!&  C^rtton  Trade;    Bailkv's 
r~!Ciiit3rf    ■re~  "TTr.    rrr. .  C3~te,  s-heep.  etc.) ;    Don'd- 
Wkjz.-  :    FJ31.AE.  ^*ser-  ot  a  Gnim  of  WTieat ;    Cx'^- 

'.he  Reapc  Di-~.ii\-rrF-.  Historv-  of  the  Lumber 
"  rKX^.  V0W-!  -  'Jiiei !  -an  Forests  and  Forestry; 
-he=  m   ,'rtsie  Cm;    '•iTc-vr.T  r    Rise  and  Procrcs^ 

>il  'ymn^^-  ^  ■•■&-•. KZ.1  Histon,-  of  the  Standani 
^«i^r:.  Sir^  n  "*•  Misrr  ;  Weed  Copner  Min(~ 
->«'t.'Sk,  ¥?-tnr\-  -■  -^.e  '  anufactirrr  of  Iron  ii  •''' 
»Iini«itti^   Ton  R;-TTr5 ;       v-son,  Romance  of  Steel ; 


Suggestions  to   Teachers 


417 


Bridge,  Carne-ie  Steel  Company;  Greeme,  Coal  and  the  Coal 
Alines;  Nicolls,  Story  ot  American  Coals;  Roberts,  The  Anthra- 
cite Coal  Industry;  Brisbin,  The  Beef  Bonanza;  Hough,  Story  of 
the  Cowboy;  Adams,  Log  of  a  Cowboy;  Marvin,  The  American 
Merchant  Marine;  I.nma.v,  The  Great  Salt  Lake  Trail;  The  Old 
Santa  F6  Trail;  Laut,  The  Story  of  the  Trapper;  Bagnall,  Tex- 
tile Industries  of  the  United  States;  Brockett,  Silk  Industry  in 
America;  North.  A  Century  of  Wool  Manufacture;  Wright, 
Wool  Growing  and  the  Tariil;  Thompson,  From  the  Cotton  Field  to 
the  Cotton  Mill;  Stubbs,  The  Sugar  Industry;  Taussig,  The  Iron 
Industry. 

To  college  students,  economic  problems  may  be  assigned  for  in- 
dividual reading  and  report.  The  following  topics  are  suggested  for 
supplementary  study. 

Chapter  I. 

(i)  Advantages  of  North  America  as  a  habitat  for  European  civili- 
zation. Shaler,  Nature  and  Man  in  America,  Ch.  VI,  VTI 
V  III.  * 

(2)  The  peculiar  physiographic  advantages  of  the  region  between 
the  Appalachian  Range  and  the  Sea.  Semple,  American  History 
and  its  Geograf)hic  Conditions,  Ch.  I,  III. 

(3)  To  what  extent  did  the  various  Indian  tribes  utilize  the 
natural  resources  of  the  country?  Farrand,  Basis  of  American 
History,  Ch.  XI\',  X\'. 

(4)  Account  for  the  failure  of  the  French  and  Dutch  colonies 
in  North  America.  John  Fiske,  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies 
Vol.  I;  New  France  and  New  England;  Thwaites,  France  in 
America. 

(5)  Account  for  the  failure  of  Spain's  colonies  along  the  Gulf 
Coast  and  in  California.  Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations.  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  \TI, 
Pt.  I;    BotRN-E,  Spain  in  North  America,  Ch.  XIII-XIX.  ' 

(6)  Was  the  success  of  the  English  colonies  due  to  advantages 
of  climate,  soil,  mineral  resources,  commercial  opportunities,  or  to 
the  superior  industrial  efficiency  of  the  race?  Shaler,  Nature  and 
Man  in  .America.  Ch.  VT. 

(7)  The  powers  and  functions  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company. 
Estimate  the  part  it  played  in  the  peopling  of  North  America. 
Osgood,  American  Colonies,  Vol.  II,  Pt.  Ill,  Ch.  V. 

Chapter  II. 

(i)  What  use  did  the  government  of  James  I  expect  to  make  of 
1-ngland  s  possessions  in  America  ?  Compare  with  the  attitude  of 
Ixird  Salisbury's  government  toward  South  Africa.  What  better 
motives  were  proposed  ?    Osgood,  Vol.  I,  Pt.  I,  Ch.  II  •   Hakluyt 

2  E  '  ' 


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418      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Western  Planting;   White,  The  Planter's  Plea;    Bacon's  Essay  on 

PlanUlions.  .  ,    ■     t      j       „„^  pi,- 

(2)  Compare  the  powers  and  functions  of  the  London  and  1 1>- 
mouth  Companies  with  those  of  the  East  India  Company.  Why  did 
the  former  fail  to  develop  profitable  trade?  Osgood,  Vol.  I,  Pt.  I, 
Ch.  V;  Hewins,  Trading  Companies,  pp.  SS-72;  Cuevney,  Euro- 
pean Background,  Ch.  VIII.  ^  uv  \ 

{,)  Why  did  the  associations  of  adventurers  succeed  in  establish- 
ing permanent  colonics?    TVLER,  England  in  America,  Ch.  XI,  XII. 

XIV  XV 

(4)  Was  the  communism  of  the  initial  stages  of  a  colonial  enlcr- 
prii  based  on  theory  or  on  practical  necessity?  .Adams,  Village 
Communities;  Bradford,  Plimouth  Plantations,  pp.  56-58.  i62-i<>S. 

'^S  "indicate  the  feudal  features  of  the  proprietary  grant  Whut 
were  its  advantages  to  the  proprietor?  to  the  colonist?  Wiy  <  .|1 
this  form  of  colonial  undertaking  fail?    Osgood,  Vol.  II,  Pt.  Ill, 

f"h   II 

(6)  The  several  forms  of  land  tenure  prevailing  in  the  colonial 
period,  communal,  feudal,  and  fee  simple.  What  were  the  gains 
Ecial  and  economic,  in  acquisition  by  "head  right  ?  by  cabin 
right"?  Compare  the  acquisition  of  title  under  the  Virginia  law 
of  1 70s  with  the  right  of  homestead  entry.  Beverley,  History  ot 
Virginia,  Ch.  XII;  Bruce,  Economic  History  of  N.rginia  Vol.  , 
Ch  VIII;   Osgood.  Vol.  I,  Pt.  II.  Ch.  XI;   Vol.  II   Pt   HI,  Ch.  11 

(7)  Was  the  Cavalier,  the  Roundhead,  or  the  Levclcr  the  mo.i 
successful  type  of  colonist?     Bradford,  pp.  m,  "i,  i37-i»i.  ^'^' 

'*(8)'^What''were  the  sources  of  labor  supply  oi>en  to  the  colonial 
entrepreneur?  Comi.are  the  economic  status  of  the  indent urol 
servant  with  that  of  the  slave,  the  free  immigrant.  Enms.  U-lur. 
from  America,  pp.  63-80;  Kalm.  Travels  into  North  .Vmerica.  \..  . 
pp.  387-W7;  Weld,  Travels,  Vol.  I.  pp.  .J<^im;  B«itce,  \..I.  I. 
Ch    IX   X;    ClEiSER,  Redomptioners  and  Indentured  Servants. 

(9)  How  far  was  the  prevalence  of  slave  lalv.r  in  the  South  .1  ,  • 
to  climate,  staple  crops,  aristocratic  form  of  land  tenure  Hnnk  . 
Land  Tenure  in  Georgia,  pp.  i i-2g ;   Mkhau.x,  Travels,  pp.  ;!9O-,50 

Chapter  III.  .      .  ,  ^       .  ^„„,.,r,. 

(,)  Compare  the  opportunities  of  a  farmer  m  eightcemh-renlar.v 
America  with  those  he  had  in  Englaml.  American  Husban.lrv. 
Vol.  I,  pp.  01-73,  86-03,  US-123.  184-215.  -'40-255.  3J7-3^'».  41 

""%  olm'irrthrop,K.rtunilies  offered  by  the  several  colonu, 
(a)  to  the  emanripate.1  servant ;  (M  to  the  man  of  capital.  Don  ■ 
English  Colonies.  Vol.  I.  pp.  381-39S;   Vol.  Ill,  PP-  i-5J;    ^"l 


Suggestions  to  Teachers  419 

pp.  38<>-388;  Vol.  V,  pp.  153-165,  322-347;  Frankun's  Works, 
vol.  Ill,  pp.  398-409;  WiNTERBOTHAM,  United  States,  Vol  III 
pp.  281-339. 

Illustrate  the  business  enterprise  of  New  England.  Weeden 
Soaal  and  Economic  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  120-124,  248-252,  365-368, 
437-438;    Vol.  II,  pp.  466-472,  565-572,  607-612,  624-635. 

(3)  Indicate  the  sources  and  distribution  of  immigration  to  the 
English  colonies  duripR  the  eighteenth  century.  Gree.ne  Pro- 
vincial America,  Ch.  XIV;  Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants  in 
America,  Ch.  II. 

(4)  Nature  of  legislation  concerning  immigration.  Proper, 
Colonial  Immigration  Laws. 

(5)  Summarize  England's  colonial  policy.  How  far  was  it  fur- 
thered by  the  natural  resources  c.  he  several  colonies?  With  what 
colonial  interests  did  it  come  into  conflict  ?  Adam  Smith  Wealth  of 
Nations,  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  VII,  Pt.  II;  Howard,  Preliminaries  of  the 
Revolution,  Ch.  Ill;  American  Husbandry,  Vol.  I,  pp.  58-60,  124- 
125,  256-276,  289-320,  352-358,  434-446;  Vol.  II,  pp.  34-41; 
AsELEY,  England's  Commercial  Policy,  Vol.  II,  pp.  34-41. 

(6)  Estimate  the  effect  of  restraints  imposed  on  the  manufacture 
of  woolens,  hats,  iron  p.ood.s,  on  the  exportation  of  tobacco.    Were 
these  disadvantages  offset  by  remission  of  import  duties  and  Ijoun- 
ties  on  exportation  r     Ueers,  Commercial  Policy  of  England  Ch  IV 
V;   Osgood,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  197-204.  '  ' 

(7)  How  far  does  the  Navigation  Act  as  supplemented  in  r'-ij 
conform  to  the  commercial  policy  suggested  in  Hakluyt's  Western 
Planting?  Weigh  the  advantage  and  disadvantage  to  the  colonies 
of  the  exclusion  of  Dutch  ships  from  American  ports.  Adam  Smith 
Wealth  of  Nations,  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  VII,  Pt.  Ill;  Andrews,  Colonial 
Self-Govemment.  Ch.  I;   Osgood,  Vol.  Ill,  Pt.  IV,  Ch.  VII. 

(8)  What  considerable  exports  were  not  enumerated?  and  what 
market  did  they  f^nd?    Weeden,  Vol.  I,  pp.  142-164. 

(9)  What  was  f'e  bearing  of  the  Molasses  Act?  Bker,  Com- 
mercial Policy.  Ch.  \'I.  Whal  colonics  were  most  siiiously  i'lffccled 
hy  England's  monopoly  of  the  export  trade  ?  Bee-s,  'ish  Colo- 
nial Policy,  Ch.  XI. 

fio)  Compare  the  sikjcIc  currency  experience  of  colonial  Virginia 
with  that  of  .Massachusetts.  Ripley.  Financial  History  of  Virginia, 
|)f).  153-162;    Si'MVER,  History  of  American  Currency,  pp.  14-43. 

^11)  The  inherent  defects  of  the  paper  money  is.sucd  in  .Massa- 
itnifietts  (d)  by  the  government.  (6)  by  the  land  banks.  Davis, 
Currency  and  Banking  in  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  Pt.  I,  II. 

Chapter  IV. 
(1)   Was  the  secession  of  the  American    colonies  due  primarily 


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420 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


to  the  conunercial  restrictions  imposed  by  the  British  government, 
taxation  without  representation,  or  to  maladministration  on  the  part 
of  the  English  officials?  Address  to  the  People  of  Great  Bnuin, 
Pitkin,  History  of  United  States,  Vol.  I,  pp.  473-48a ;  tRANKUN  s 
Works,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  407-450;  Ramsay,  History  of  South  Carolina, 
Vol  I  Ch  VI;  Ramsay,  History  of  .\merican  Revolution,  Vol.  1, 
Ch."l,'ll;  Bassett,  Regulators  of  North  CaroUna;  Beers,  Colonial 
PoUcy,  Ch.  XIV.  ,    ^ 

(2)  Effect  of  the  seven  years  of  nonintercourse  on  manufactures  in 
the  colonies,  on  commerce.  Callender,  Seleciions,  pp.  439-445; 
Tench  Coxe,  View  of  United  Sutes  of  America. 

(i)  What  did  the  Americans  gain  and  what  did  they  lose  by  in- 
de^ndcnce  ?  Public  Papers  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  I,  p.  230 ;  McLaugh- 
lin, Confederation  and  Constitution,  Ch.  V.  .    ^,   ,   _ 

(4)  Was  the  repudiation  of  the  bills  of  credit  inevitable  ?  Shuckkr, 
Revolutionary  Finances;  McLaughlin,  Confederation  and  Constitu- 
tion, Ch.  IV,  IX;  Bullock,  Finances  of  the  Revolution;  Sumner, 
Finances  and  Financiers  of  the  Revolution,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  IV. 

(c)    \ccount  for  the  failure  of  the  first  anti-slavery  movement. 

Tucker,   DisserUtion  on  Slavery;     Dubois,   Suppression  of   the 

Slave  Trade,  Ch.  II,  III.  IV;    Locke,  .\nti-Slavery  m  America; 

Brissot  de  Warville,  Travels  in  United  States,  pp.  274-300. 

Legislation  against   the   Slave  Trade;    Coluns,  Domestic  Slave 

Trade,  Ch.  I.  .  ,  •    tt     .    1 

(6)  Compare  the  opportunities  of  the  pioneer  farmer  in  Kentucky 
with  those  of  the  colonist  on  the  Atlantic  Coa^t.lMLAV  Western 
Territory,  p.  130;    American  Husbandry,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  XVlll. 

(7)  Illustrate  the  economic  foresight  of  George  Washington;  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  Index  to  Works  of  Washington,  Jefferson. 
under  titles  land,  roads,  farming,  slavery,  emtgralton,  etc. 

(8)  Trace  the  democratization  of  land  tenure  consequent  on  tin- 
Revolution.     Randall,  Life  of  Jefferson.  Vol.  I,  pp.  i94-"0.  307 
400;  Hamilton's  Report  on  Public  Lands;   Cheney,  Land  Tenun. 

C^HAPTER  V 

(i)  Franklin's  views  on  the  rights  of  neutral  trade.  Works 
Vol.  VIII,  p.  246;  Vol.  X,  p.  ho.  How  far  have  they  been  vii, 
dicatefl  ?    Schuyler,  American  Diplomacy.  Ch.  V. 

(2)  Hamilton's  views  on  banking,  on  manufactures,  on  the  pau- 
of  agriculture  in  national  economy,  on  the  sources  from  whu  h  . 
labor  supplv  would  be  derived.  How  far  do  they  correspond  «uh 
mcKlcrn  opinion  ?     Hamilton's  reports  on  Manufactures,  on  Banku,;.:. 

(V)  Show  that  the  dominant  purpose  of  our  mmmerrml  ix-L.  ^ 
before  the  War  of  1811  was  the  promotion  of  the  shipping  ml.  nsi. 
What  was  the  result  for  (<i)  the  mercantile  marine;   (ft)  the  dcNdup 


Suggestions  to  Teachers 


421 


ment  of  our  foreign  trade;  (c)  the  foreign  market  for  agricultural 
products,  timber,  cotton,  wheat;  (d)  the  exploitation  of  our  natural 
resources,  e.g.  of  the  Mississippi  VaUey?  Pitkin,  History  of  the 
United  States. 

(4)  What  was  the  efifect  of  the  protection  accorded  to  manufac- 
tures on  (a)  the  Federal  revenues,  Dewey,  Financial  History  of 
United  States;  (6)  the  invention  of  machinery,  Bishop,  Vol  I  383- 
423 ;  W  utilization  of  the  waste  labor  of  women  and  children,  Ab- 
bott, Women  in  Industry,  Ch.  H;  Tench  Coxe,  View  of  the  United 
states. 

(5)  What  were  the  conditions  in  England  that  induced  emigration 
to  the  United  States?  Birbeck,  NTotes  on  a  Journey  to  .America 
pp.  8-10,  42,  s6-«2,  155-157;  Chickering,  Foreign  Emigration 
C  otnotes  on  English  conditions). 

(6)  The  movement  of  population  to  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois- 
how  far  was  its  direction  influenced  by  the  policy  of  the  Federal 
government  as  to  («)  slavery,  Birbeck,  pp.  o,  7;  (6)  disposition  of 
public  lands,  pp.  70-71;  (f)  transportation  facilities,  pp  3,-42- 
KiNT,  Letters  pp.  64-82.  How  far  by  geographic  conditions? 
Semple,  Ch.  IV,  V. 

(7)  Compare  the  conditions  prevailing  in  and  character  of  migra- 
tion to  the  Mississippi  Territory.  Haskins,  Yazoo  Land  Com- 
panies. 

(8)  Estimate  the  influence  of  cotton  culture  in  fastening  slave 
labor  on  the  Gulf  states.  Hamsind,  Cotton  Culture,  Ch  II  III- 
Collins,  Slave  Trade,  Ch.  II. 

(9)  The  effect  of  the  liberal  public  land  policy  on  the  scarcity'  of 
hired  labor.  Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations,  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  VII,  Pi  II  • 
Birbeck,  pp.  93-94,  156-158;    Chevauer,  p.  144.  '      •      • 

Chapter  VI. 

(i)  Contrast  the  effects  of  the  embargo  in  New  England  and 
Virginia;  Marvin,  American  Merchant  Marine,  Ch  VII  Pitkin 
Ch'xvrXVII    ^"'^*^   ^'*'"'    ^"*'''"''"'   J'^ff^^onian   System,' 

(2)  Compare  the  immediate  consequences  of  the  War  of  181 2 
with  Its  ultimate  consequence-.,  commercial,  industrial,  and  diplo- 
matic.    ScHirvLER,  American  Diplomacy,  Ch.  V,  IX. 

(}.)   Discuss  the  advisability  of  substituting  reciprocity  of  trade 
for  the  differential  advantages  Intherto  accorded  to  ,      ted  States 
shipping.     Marvin,  Ch.  IX;   Pitkin.  Statistical  View.  (       IV  VHI 
^(4)   Compare  the  War  of  1812  with  the  Revolutionary  War  in 
=  :.m  on  manufactures.     Ba(..sai.l.  Textile  Industries,  Vol.   I,  Ch 
Mil.  X.  XI;   SwAVK,  Iron  in  all  Ages,  Vol.  XIX,  XX. 

(5)   Conflict  of  interests  in  our  first  einnh  of  protet  tion.     TAissrr, 


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422      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Tariff  History  of  the  United  States,  Ch.  II;  American  State 
Papers,  Finance,  Vol.  II,  pp.  367,  465 ;  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  32.  Sh  S6,  85- 
95,  168,  440-444,  447,  452,  454,  458,  46:^-463,  484,  S18,  522. 
Flint,  Letters,  Vol.  XX ; 

Representative  views,  Callender,  Ch.  X. 

(6)  Compare  the  duties  imposed  on  cottons,  woolens,  iron  manu- 
factures cordage,  and  the  raw  materials  thereof,  in  the  tarifls  of 
1812,  1816,  1820,  1824,  1828,  1832.     Official  Tariff  Compilation. 

(7)  Estimate  the  failures  and  successes  of  the  second  National 
Bank.  Dewey,  Second  National  Bank;  Conant,  Banks  of  Issue, 
PP  340-357;   Catterall,  Second  N  tional  Bank. 

(8)  Causes  and  effects  of  the  Crisis  of  181Q.  Carey,  The  Crisis; 
DwiGHT,  Travels,  Vol.   I,  pp.  218-222;   Turner,  Rise  of  the  New 

West,  Ch.  K.  ,  ,    u     o.    u     •     . 

(g)  Compare  banking  methods  east  and  west  of  the  AUeghenics , 

Conant,  Banks  of  Issue,  Ch.  XIV;    Flint,  Letters  from  America, 

pp.  130-136,    225,    238,    274,    2Q7. 

(10)  Estimate  the  speculative  element  in  the  westward  move- 
ment MiCHAUX,  Tiivcls  to  the  Westward  of  the  Allegheny  Moun- 
tains, pp.  i88-ig4;  Flint,  Letters,  pp.  64-82,  97,  287 ;  Birbeck. 
Journey,  pp.  12(^126,  154-1SS,  232-236;  Turner,  The  New  West. 
Ch.  V,  VI,  VII.  Was  this  fostered  by  the  land  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment? ..,,... 

(11)  Compare  the  New  Englander  and  the  Virginian  as  pioneers. 

Chevauer,  United  States,  pp.  109-120. 

Chapter  VII. 

(i)   Effect  of  machinery  on  manufactures,  on  growth  of  towns, 
on  conditions  of  labor.     Montgomery,  Cotton  Manufacture;  Cm: 
VAUER,  pp.  128-133.  137-144;    Wright,  Factory  System;    Census 
1880,  Manufactures. 

(2)  Exhaustion  of  the  farms  of  New  England  and  New  \ork; 
resort  to  improved  agriculture.  Buell,  American  Husbandry; 
Martineau,  Society  in  America,  Vol.  I,  pp.  290-307;  Stuaki. 
Three  Years  in  North  America,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  XII. 

(3)  Exhaustion  of  the  plantations  of  the  southern  seaboard  staUs ; 
persistence  of  one  crop  agriculture.  Phillips.  Plantation  and  I-  ron- 
tier.  Vol.  I,  pp.  55-57 1  Olmstead,  Cotton  Kingdom,  Vol.  I,  Ch  1\. 

(4)  Relation  .  ;  cotton  culture  to  (a)  the  westw.ird  movement  ol 
population,  r/.  iwpMlation  charts  in  United  States  Census,  1870; 
(fr)  prosecution  of  the  slave  trade.    Dubois,  Suppression  of  the  blaxo 

Trade.  ai-    •    •     • 

Reflex  influence  on  the  development  of  the  upper  Missi.,.-.ilr' 
Valley.  Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years,  pp.  13-37.  'O'^ 
IIi;     BiRBECIC,  pp.    102-105. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers  423 

(5)  Quadrilateral  commerce  arising  out  of  the  territorial  division 
of  labor  between  the  Old  South,  the  New  South,  New  England  and 
the  West.  Caixender,  Selections,  Ch.  VII;  Lambert  Travels 
Vol.  II,  pp.  146-151,  346-348.  '  ' 

(6)  The  transportation  system  of  the  United  States,  natural 
and  artificial.  The  adequacy  of  water  transportation.  Chevalier 
Letter  XXI ;    Callender,  Ch.  VIII. 

(7)  Effect  of  steam  navigation  on  transportation  in  the  West 
Chevauer,  pp.  212-224;    Birbeck,  pp.  150-153. 

(8)  Note  limitations  on  charges  for  transportation  and  use  in- 
corporated m  charters  granted  to  postroad  and  canal  companies 
Tanner,  Internal  Improvements.  Compare  in  this  respect  early 
railway  charters;  Meyer,  Railway  Legislation,  Pt.  II,  Ch  I  Anoen- 
dix  I.  '     ^^^ 

(9)  Financing  of  internal  improvements.  MacDonald  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy,  Ch.  VIII;  Callender,  Early  Transportation 
and  Bankmg  Enterprises;  Morris,  Internal  Improvements  in  Ohio- 
Weaver,  Internal  Improvements  in  North  Carolina;  Putnam' 
Economic  History  of  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal.  ' 

(10)  The  advantages  of  the  railroad  over  water  transportation 
Laroner,  Railway  Economy. 

(it)  Economic  Influence  of  the  Erie  Canal.  Hulbl-rt  Great 
American  Canals  Vol.  I;  Hill,  Waterways  and  Canal  Construc- 
tion in  New  \ork  State;  Stuart,  Three  Years  in  North  America, 
Vol.  I,  Ch.  IV,  V. 

Chapter  VIII. 

(i)  Character  of  immigration  between  1820  and  i860,  and  atti- 
tude of  the  American  public  regarding  it.  CmrKERiNo,  Foreign 
Immigration;  Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration,  Ch  II  HI- 
Franklin,  Legislative  History  of  Naturalization. 

(2)  Economic  effects  of  slavery  on   (a)  immigration;    (ft)  agri- 
culture;    (f)    manufactures;     (rf)    commerce.     Callender     Selec 
tions,    Ch^  XV;     INOLE,    Southern    Sidelights;     Ru.ssell,'  North 
America,  Ch.  V  III,  X. 

(3)  The  movement  represented  in  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  Speeches  of  Henry  Clay,  January  20,  1827,  DecemlK-r  17 
1829;    DeBow,  Southern  and  Western  States,  Vol.  II,  pp.  234    267 

7-310,  342;   Martineait,  Society  in  America,  Vol.  I,  pp.  345-395! 

.4)  Account  for  the  opposition  of  Soulhern  st.itesmen  to  (a)  pro- 
tective tariffs;  (6)  ship  subsidies;  (c)  internal  improvements  at 
national  expense.  DeB(.w's  Review,  see  Index;  Baiuc.h  Tiriff 
.,nd  P^Wir  Lands  in  the  S.,uth ;  Tai.ssi...  Suu-  Pa,K-rs  and  s|)eec  hes 
on  the  Tariff,  pp.  108-213;  Phillips,  PlantaUon  and  Frontier  H 
330-343-  '     ' 


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424      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

U)  Animus  of  the  political  battle  over  the  annexaUon  of  Texas? 
wi  it  anti-slavery  or  anti-expansion?  Compare  di^as.on  of  parties 
over  the  Oregon  boundary.    Benton,  Thirty  Years'  View;    Web- 

ster's  Speeches.  .  .        ..        .•  „      n»„ 

(6)  The  Mormon  Church  as  an  expeninent  m  cooperation.  Ban- 
croft, History  of  Utah.  ,  ^  »,.        •   17,,..., 

f7)  New  goals  of  the  westward  migration,  (a)  Missouri,  ttiNT, 
RSlecUons;  W  Oregon.  Schafer,  Pacific  Northwest^  Why  were 
the  resources  of  the  Great  Plains  ignored?  Parrish,  Great  Plams, 
TORNEH,  Rise  of  the  New  West,  Ch.  VIII. 

(8)  Financing  of  the  western  railroads.  Reasons  for  state  and 
national  aid?    Sanborn,  Congressional  Land  Grants,  Ui.  1,  u. 

(0)  Advantages  of  a  scientific  classification  of  tariff  schedules? 
Walker's  argument  in  behalf  of  the  consumer?  Taussig,  State 
Papers  and  Speeches,  pp.  214-257-  .     ,       .  •,       f 

How  far  were  the  low  duties  responsible  for  the  prospenty  of 
agriculture?  commerce?  manufactures?  How  much  is  it  to  be 
attributed  to  the  coincident  repeal  of  the  English  Com  Laws? 
Levi,  British  Commerce,  Pt.  IV,  Ch.  IV;  Thompson,  Protective 
Tariff  Laws,  Ch.  XXXIX,  XL. 

(10)  Arguments  for  and  against  the  subsidizing  of  steamship  lines. 
CONGRESSIONAL  Globe,  1847-1S48,  1852 ;   JoHNSON,  Water  Trans- 

Dortation,  Ch.  Ill,  IX.  .     .  »>.  T^ 

(11)  Rise  and  fall  of  traffic  on  the  Mississippi  River.  Dixon, 
Tariff  History  of  the  Mississippi  River  System ;  Ogg,  Opemng  of  the 
Mississippi;    Rept.  Internal  Commerce,  1887. 

(i 2)  Animus  of  Jackson's  war  on  the  National  Bank.  Chevauer, 
United  States,  Letters  III,  IV.  V,  XIH.  XIV;    Dewey,  Second 

National  Bank.  ,    „  ,    „ 

(n)  Compare  the  crisis  of  1857  with  those  of  1819  and  1837  as 
to  cause,  effect,  intensity,  duration.  Burton,  Crises;  Conant 
Banks  of  Issue,  pp.  617-618,  624-628,  636-640;  Turner,  Rise  of 
New  West.  Ch.  IX ;  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abohtion,  Ch.  XX ,  Smith, 
Parties  and  Slavery,  Ch.  XIII. 

Chapter  X^C< 

(i)  Comparison  between  condition  of  slaves  and  wage  laborers. 
DeBow,  Southern  and  Western  States,  Vol.  II,  pp.  2*^-235;  Olm- 
sted, Cotton  Kingdom.  Vol.  II,  pp.  184-212,  236-271. 

(2)  Efforts  to  restrain  the  domestic  slave  trade.  Coluns,  C... 
VII   VIII ;    Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Ch.  IX. 

(3^  Status  of  the  freedmen.  Washington,  Story  of  the  Negro; 
Collins,  Ch.  V ;  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Ch.  VI. 

(4)  Aims  an<l  methods  of  the  AbolitionUts.  Hart,  Slavery  and 
Abolition,  Ch.  XII,  XIII,  XIV,  XV,  XVI. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers  425 

(5)  Evolution  in  the  ideals  of  wage-earners'  organizations  Com- 
mons AND  Sumner,  Labor  Movement,  1820-1840;  Commons,  Labor 
Movement,  1840-1860. 

(6)  Elements  that  went  to  the  making  of  the  Free  Soil  Democ- 
racy.   Smith,  Parties  and  Slavery,  Ch.  IV,  VI,  VII,  VIII,  IX. 

(7)  Significance  to  the  slave  interest  of  the  control  of  the  terri- 
tories.   Ingle,  Ch.  IX;   Brown,  Lower  South,  pp.  83-112 

^.^??  yf^}  influence  had  the  tariff  controversy  in  provoking  the 
Civil  War?    Ballagh,  Tariff  and  Public  Lands,  pp.  221-263 

(9)  Difficulties  of  the  Confederacy,  financial  and  economic. 
bCHWAB,  Confederate  States  of  America. 

(10)  Compare  the  national  banking  system  organized  in   1864 
vith  the  first  National  Bank  as  to  integrity  and  elasticity  of  the 
currency.     Bolles,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol  III 
Bk  I  Ch.  XI;    Bk.  II,  Ch.  IV;   Conant,  Banks  of  Issue,'  Ch.  Xv' 

(11)  Compare  the  greenbacks  with  the  Continental  rurrency  as 
to  limits  on  issue  and  guarantee  of  redemption.  Bolles,  Vol.  Ill 
Bk.  II,  Ch.  I,  II;  Bullock,  Monetary  History  of  the  United  Sutes' 
pp.  60-78.  ' 

(12)  Influences  making  for  increase  of  customs  duties  during 
the  Civil  War.  The  industrial  effect  of  the  war  uriflfs.  Taussig 
Tanflf  History,  pp.  155-193;  Stanwood,  Vol.  II,  pp.  126-138. 

(13)  New  influences  making  for  concentration  of  industry.  Myer 
History  of  Great  American  Fortunes;  Youngman,  Causes  of  Gre- ' 
Fortunes. 

(14)  Cause  of  decline  of  our  merchant  marine  after  the  Civil  War 
Marvin,  Ch.  IV;   Spears,  Story  of  American  Merchant  Marine 

(15)  Account  for  contemporary  expansion  of  commerce  on  the 
Great  Lakes.     For  the  decline  of  river  commerce.     Rept    Inland 
Waterways  Commission,  1908;    Rept.  Bureau  of  Corporations 
on  TransportaUon  by  Water  in  the  United  Sutes,  1910;    Dixon 
Tariff  History  of  Mississippi  River  S\  stem.  ' 

(16)  Trace  the  evolution  of  the  Homestead  Act.  Compare  with 
the  head  right  as  to  effect  on  land  tenure.  What  was  the  effect 
on  wages?  Hart,  Disposition  of  Public  Unds;  Congressional 
Globe,  1849,  1850,  1854,  1861-1862. 

(17)  Compare  Whitney's  idea  of  a  transcontinental  railroad  with 
the  accomplisl.  ,d  fact.  Whitney,  Project  for  a  Railroad  to  the 
lacific;  Davis,  Union  Pacific  Railroad;  Fli.nt,  Railroads  of  United 
Sta.es. 

(18)  The  Grange  movement  as  a  preparation  for  the  Interstate 
Commerce    Act.    Rept.    CirtLOM    Committee.    1886:     Detrtck 
Mieci  of  the  Granger  Acts ;    Martin,  Grange  Movement. 

(19)  Effect  of  emancipation  on  land  tenure.  Bank's  Land  Ten- 
ure m  Georgia,  pp.  30-1 16. 


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426      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Labor  Problem  of  the  South,  Peasant  Agriculture.  Fleming, 
Industrial  System  in  Alabama ;  Dubois,  Negro  Farmer,  Negro  Land- 
owner; Kelsey,  Negro  Laborer;  Hammond,  Cotton  Culture,  Ch. 

IV  V. 

(20)  Causes  of  the  industrial  revival  in  the  South.  Symposium, 
Am.  Econ.  Ass.  Pubs.,  1904;  Haht,  The  Southern  South. 

Chapter  X.  .         .•      •     .u 

(i)  /Attitude  of  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties  m  the 
tariff  controversy.  Account  for  the  conversion  of  the  South  and  the 
Far  West  for  the  protest  from  the  Middle  West.  Stanwood, 
tariff  Controversies,  Vol.  H,  Ch.  XV,  XVI,  XVII,  XVIII;   Wilus, 

Tariff  of  1909.  .^  ,    .  ,  ..        to 

(2)  Compare  conditions  determining  the  tariff  legislation  of  1897 
and  1909.    Tariff  Hearings,  1897,  1909;    Willis,  Tariff  of  1909; 

Taussig,  Tariff  of  1909.  .„,.,.        « 

(3)  Influenceof  business  combinations  on  tanff  legislation.    bOLEN, 

Trusts  and  the  Tariff ;  Tarbell,  Tariff  in  Our  Own  Times. 

(4)  Contemporary  arguments  for  and  against  the  subsidizing  ot 
steamship  lines.  McVev,  The  Frye  Subsidy  Bill;  Spring  Ship 
Subsidies-    Griffin,  References  on  Mercantile  Marine  Subsidies. 

(5)  History  of  the  bimetallic  standard  in  the  United  States. 
What  has  been  the  effect  of  the  alternating  standards  in  actual  use? 
The  economic  argument  underlying  the  free  silver  agitation  ?  Dewey, 
Financial  History  of  the  United  States;  Dewey,  National  Prob- 
lems, Ch.  XIV,  XX;  Laughlin,  Bimetallism;  Hepburn,  Contest 
for  Sound  Money. 

(6)  Account  for  the  rise  of  prices  from  1890  to  1909.  U.S.  ^ow- 
MissiONER  OF  LABOR,  Bulletins  51,  53.  59;  Laughlin,  Gold  and 
Prices;   Rept.  Mass.  Commission  on  the  Cost  of  Living,  1910. 

(7)  Is  our  currency  system  deficient  in  volume  ?  elasticity  ?  se- 
curity for  redemption  ?  Sprague,  Proposals  for  Strengthening  the 
National  Bank  System.  ,     .      ,       c 

(8)  Argument  for  and  against  a  central  bank.  Spragik, 
Central  Bank,  vs.  Warburg.  Central  Reserve  Bank.  The  slate 
guarantee  of  bank  deposits,  Webster.  Guarantee  Law  of  Oklahoma, 
vs.  Cooke,  Insurance  of  Bank  Deposits. 

(9)  Show  that  a  railway  corporation  is  a  legitimate  subject  tor 
government  regulation.  Argument  for  Federal  rather  than  stat.' 
control.     Myf.r,    Northern    Securities    Case;      Dewey,    National 

Problems,  Ch.  VI.  .  •     .1 

(10^  Indicate  the  evolution  of  public  control  represented  in  tlu' 
Interstate  Commerce  Act,  the  Ksch  and  Hepburn  amcn(lmel>l^.  ar,  : 
the  legislation  of  1910.  Ripley,  Railway  Problems;  HAl.I,l^. 
Intestate  Commerce  Commission. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers 


427 


(11)  Financial  and  political  dominance  of  the  great  business  com- 
binations Moody,  Truth  about  the  Trusts;  \oungman,  Economic 
Causes  of  Great  Fortunes. 

(12)  Is  the  animus  of  the  anti-trust  movement  with  the  laborer? 
the  consumer?  the  independent  producer?  Argument  for  Federal 
VT^/'^irr/''',.!^'^'^^''''  incorporation?  Jenks,  Trust  Problem,  Ch. 
Xn  XIII;  Whitney,  Addystone  Pijjc  Company;  Rept.  Bureau 
OF  Corporations  on  the  Beef  Combination,  Standard  Oil  Company, 

(13)  Compare  the  crises  of  1873,  1884,  1893,  1907,  as  to  dominant 
cause,  seventy,  and  interests  especially  aflFected.  Sprague,  History 
of  Crises  under  the  National  Banking  System. 

(14)  Compare  the  Knights  of  Labor  with  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  as  to  aims  and  organization.  Kirk,  Knights  of  Labor 
and  the  American  Federation;  Rept.  Lvdustrfal  Commission. 
Vol.  VII.  ' 

(is)  Tendencies  indicated  by  strike  statistics  as  to  chances  of 
success,  as  to  cost  to  employer,  emplo\  ecs,  community  concerned. 
Repts.  U.S.  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886,  1900,  1905.  Illustrate 
by  a  particular  strike.  Rept.  Com.  on  Anthracite  Coal  Strike- 
Rept.  Com.  ON  Chicago  Strike;   George,  Coal  Miners' Strike. 

(16)  What  hope  of  peaceful  settlement  of  labor  disputes  offered 
by  the  employers'  association?  Andrews,  Development  of  the 
Employers'  Association. 

(17)  Discuss  adequacy  of  the  present  restrictions  on  immigration. 
Hall,  Immigration;    Rept.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XV. 

(18)  Persistence  of  contract  labor,  peonage.  Advantages  and 
disadvantages  to  employer?  to  the  immigrant?  Coman,  Contract 
Labor  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands;  Rept.  of  Ford  Committee  on  Con- 
tract Labor ;  Italians  in  Chicago ;  Repts.  Commissioner  of  Immigra- 
tion.    Forthcoming  government  report  on  peonage. 

(19)  Economic  effects  of  immigration  for  American  industry,  for 
the  American  workman.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  293- 
743 ;    Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants. 

Special  studies  in  Immigration.     Coolidge,  Chinese  Immigration ; 
Symposium  on  Asiatic  Immigration,  Annals  Am.  Acad.,  1909 ;  Balch, 
Our  Slavic  Fellow  Citizens;    Lord,  The  Italian  in  America';    Bern- 
HEIMER,  Russian  Jew  in  America ;    Steiner,  On  the  Trail  of  the  Im 
migrant;  The  Immigrant  Tide;  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans. 


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1887. 

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mm 


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«H 


INDEX 


Addyston  Pipe  Company,  360. 
Adventurers,  24,  26,  27 ;  method  of 
securing  land,  in  Virginia,  32,  in 
Maryland,  37. 
Agriculture:  colonial,  48,  49,  53,  54, 
56-63,  fostering  legislation,  62-3 ; 
advantaged  by  foreign  markets, 
118-9,  »S6,  257,  by  free  land  policy, 
119,  296-7,  306,  by  railroad  con- 
struction, 251,  by  inventions,  149- 
50,  267-8,  by  fertilizers,  262,  by 
government  experiment  stations, 
395-6;  development,  184,  214-6, 
267-8,  Southern,  237-9,  309-12; 
antagonism  of  interest,  vs.  manu- 
factures, 142,  14s,  166,  255,  vs. 
shipping,  225,  332 ;  the  Grange 
Movement,  306-7,  337;  favored 
by  Urifif  of  1SS3,  314,  315,  of  i8qo, 
316-7,  of  1897.  319;  favored  by 
reciprocity  treaties,  317. 

Agriculture,  Department  of,  395-8. 

Agricultural  implements,  150,  237, 
261.  310,  328;  concentration  of 
industry,  355. 

Allegheny  Portage  Railroad,  218. 

Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron 
and  Steel  Workers,  358. 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  362-3. 

American  Sugar  Refining  Company, 
317.  310,  359. 

"American  System,"  194-s,  255. 

Americus  V'espucius,  2. 

Anthracite  Coal  .Syndicate,  358. 

Anti-Trust  Law,  Federal,  360. 

Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  F( 
Railroad,  348,  351. 

Balboa.  4. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  222, 

2JJ.  348,  351 
Bwikmptcies.  2q»s.  scj.  iy>-:     ^f-.r^ 

303.  JI4-5.  339,  34&-9- 


Banks:  national;  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  154,  155,  156,  ad 
national,  198,  199,  200,  201,  na- 
tional bank  system,  285-6,  341-2; 
state,  155,  156,  198,  201,  aoi-j, 
202-3,  285-6. 

Berlin  Decree,  176,  179. 

Beverley,  Robert,  69. 

"Bill  of  adventure,"  24. 

Bills  of  credit :  colonial,  85-7 ;  Con- 
tinental, 107-8,  ioi-9,  IIO-II, 
112,  depreciation,  108,  109,  no, 
HI,  112;  issue  forbidden  to  states, 
132;  Confederate,  280;  Federal, 
285,  depreciation,  285,  redemption, 
285-6. 

Binding  Twine  Trust,  317. 

Black  Belt,  210,  240,  328,  351. 

Blaine,  James  C,  316-7. 

Bland  Act,  336,  337. 

Board  of  Trade  and  Plantotions,  63, 
66,  87,  90. 

Bonds:  Federal,  108,  155, 199,  284-5, 
341-2;   Confederate,  280. 

Boone,  Daniel,  125,  170. 

Boston,  s,  15,  74,  78,  95,  103,  117, 
137.  211.  240- 

Boston  and  Albany  Railroad,  249. 
351- 

Boycott,  366. 

Breweries,  53,  142,  iy3. 

Brisbane,  Albert,  277. 

Buchanan,  James,  205-6. 

Bureau  of  Corporations,  360. 

By-products,  utilization  of,  385, 
388-9. 

Cabot,  John  and  Sebastian,  13. 
California:   ceded  to  U.S.,  21;  dis- 
covery of  gold,  245. 
Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  29,  32. 

'.  aria!=  .    viajiatiri  3  plan,  log  70,  2  20  ; 

Eric,   2x7-8;    Pennsylvania,   218; 


4SJ 


454 


Index 


N 


■  !   -    •  \''-\ 


Ill      ' 


I 


[-■1:1. 
I  ■■,'■' 


I   i 


[I  ■ 


Ddaware  and  Raritan.  no;  Dela-  i 
ware  and  Chesapeake,  220 ;  Miami, 
220;  Ohio,  J  20;  Dismal  Swamp, 
J2i;  Chesapeake  and  Ohio,  222; 
Welland,  226:  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
226;  Des  Plaines,  226;  congres- 
sionai  aid,  220-1. 

Carey  Act,  402-.?. 

Carolinas :  colonial.  30,  38,  60-1 ; 
North,  45,  100,  238;  South:  part 
in  Revolution,  gs.  100,  101,  102; 
attitude  toward  slaver>',  44.  45. 
n()-2o;  cotton  culture,  183,  238, 
239-40 ;  cotton  manufactures,  23*- 
41,  311;  first  railroads,  212-3; 
nuUiftcation,   1Q7:    secession,   27Q. 

Cartier,  Jacques,  10,  22. 

Cattle,  46,  so,  61,  130,  ist>-7.  238, 

319- 
Chandlers,  143. 
Chartered  companies,  iy-b. 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  222. 
Cheves,  Langdon,  200. 
Chicago,  217,  226,  303,  iofo.  321 
Chicago,     Burlington    and     Quincy 

Railroad,  350. 
Chinese  immigration,  300.  3<'2.  3(>9- 

70. 
Clark,  George  Rogers,  127. 
Clark,  William  (see  Lewis  and  Clark) 
Clay,  Henry,  194,  271.  1 

Cleveland,  Grover,  315,  im- 
Clothing:  homespun,  49.  "*:  ready 

made,  256,  260,  370. 
Coal:  anthracite,  187,  21H;   l>itumi- 
nous,  240,  259,  31=;    stalistirs  .  f 
production,   241,   289:    protciti\c 
duties,  14s.  318. 
Coastal  plain.  16.  375 
Collective  bartjain.  305.    "7  •'^• 
Collins  Line,  265. 
Colonists,  character  of,  i;.  "o.  ,iS  <>, 

58,  00,  6i. 
Colonization  Society.  Amerii.in,  '71 
Columbus,  Christopher,   2.  S      Bar- 
tholomew, 2. 
Combinations  in  restraint  of  trade, 

359-60. 
Commerce :  colonial.  5-7.  21.  ''2,  (>3, 
76-7,    78-9.    coastwise,    70.    V\pst 
India,  51,  6.;.  op.  /7.  v.*  j.  v4.  104, 
West  African,  78,  restrictive  legis- 


lation, 79,  82-s,  92-4;  Revolu- 
tionary War,  9<>-8,  99.  »03.  "3. 
114;  national  control  of,  115,  133- 
4;  discriminating  duties,  135; 
commercial  treaties,  138-40;  War 
of  i8n,  139,  176-80;  reciprocity 
policy,  181-3;  effect  of  Walker 
tariff,  255-6,  258,  262;  effect  of 
repeal  of  Com  Laws,  255,  256; 
statistics  of,  134,  140,  181,  262-3, 
327-31 ;  chart,  64. 

Commerce,  coastwise,  242,  263,  265- 
6,  294,  330. 

Commerce,  Great  Lakes,  166,  a  26-7, 

294.  ii"^- 
Commerce,  Oriental,  135,  137.  3^8, 

330. 
Commerce,  transatlantic,  declme  of, 

283-4,  292-4. 
Commerce,  West  India,  114-S.  '38, 

139,  140,  167,  193 
"  Common  stock  "  in  the  first  colonies, 

25.  27,  28. 
Communistic  experiments :  Owenite, 

275 ;    Fourier  associations,   277. 
Conditions  of  Plantations,  37- 
Congress,   Continental,   103-4,    tos, 

107-13,  120-2. 
Congress  of  the  Confederation,  115. 

158. 
Connecticut,  28, 35.  66,  70,  82,  86. 121. 
Conservation,  National  Commission, 

407-10. 
Copper,  7.  i».  289,  328. 
Corn,  Indian,  7,  20,  29,  39,  46,  49.  50, 
53,  54.  56,  77.   128-31,  193.    256, 
,14.  3«6,  318,340- 
Corn  Laws,  77.  ^li^  '56. 
Ciirnbur>',  Ixird,  66. 
Cornell,  Ezra,  252. 
Coronado,  10. 
Cortfe,  8. 

Cotton,  37.  65,  77.  82,  I5«.  164,  i8i. 
186,194,195.207,208,209,210-11, 

238-40,  256,  27a,  328. 
Cotton  gin.  151,  241. 
Cotton  manufactures,  149-5'.  i84-<'. 

195.  259,  287,  3".  .U4-6,  328,  356. 
Coxc.  Tench,  152,  iHft.  189. 
Crises.     See  financial  cri'^es. 

Cub::.  3g.  3w.,i.S- 

Cumberland  Gap.  124. 


Index 


455 


Cumberland  Road,  107,  .'o,v 
Currency:     specie;     colonial,    46-7, 
65,  93,  131   foreign  coins,  154,  sup- 
ply, iS4-<>.  198-200,  ^57.  267.  280, 
J84-S.  303.  31S.  336-7.  the  Specie 
Circular,    229,    statistics   of,    335. 
336-7,  legislation  of  I7(j2,  154,  of 
1S34,  228,  of  iSji,  335.  of  1S73, 
335-6,  of  187S,  337,  of  /Syo,  337. 
of  i<)oo,  340-1 ;    bank  notes,   ist  j 
national,  154,  13s.  iS**.  2d  national,  | 
198-9,  state  banks,  198,  201,  202,  | 
228-9,  231,  267,  285-6,  statistics  of ,  \ 
198,  201,  267,  the  Specie  Circular, 
229,  present  national  bank  system, 
284-s,  341-.!,   circulation,  341-3; 
statistics  01. 198,  200,  202,  231,  285-  I 
6,  336-7.  340-1-  ' 

Cutler,  Dr.  Manasseh,  158.  ■. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  25.  32,  56.  | 

Dallas,  Secretar>',  report  on  tariff  re- 
vision. 191. 
D'Ayllon,  9. 
Declaration   of    Independence,    105, 

121-2. 

Declaratory  Art,  08,  105. 
Delaware,  Lor<l,  25. 
Department  of  Agriculture,  39S-<>- 
Desert  Land  Act,  402. 
Dingley  Tariff.  319-22. 
Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  221. 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  295. 
Drainage  of  swamp  lands,  404-5. 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  14. 
Dry  farming,  405-7. 

Eastward  Route.  2. 

Kmbarno  Act,  177,  17R-9. 

Employers,  liability  uf.  soi . 

Employers'  .Xssociatioris,  367  S. 

Erickson,  Leif,  5. 

Ericsson,  226. 

Erie  Canal,  217-8. 

Esch  Law,  391. 

Exhaustion    of     mineral    resources, 

,(84-6. 
Exploitation    of    natural    resources, 

375-81. 
K.rports;  colonial.  51.  Si>  57.  s8.  so. 

fo,  61,  62.  63,  6^,  77.  104:    stalis- 

licsot,  104.  140,  17s.  »*o.  25f.  -iy- 


290,  321,  330;  charts,  64, 101,  257, 

329- 

Fall  Line,  17,  J40,  ju.  ii^- 
Fertilizers,  50,  58,  262,  310,  312. 
Financial  crises:   of  iSiQ,  20O-i,  of 
/S  J7,  228-31,  of  i.Vjo,  231,  of  l8s7, 
266-7,  of  /V/,?.  301-4,  of  lSi4,  314- 
5,  348,  of  iSq^.  339;  chart,  302- 
Fisheries!  colonial,  20,  29,  39,  sit  93. 
114;     Grand    Banks,    138,     183; 
bounties,  242 ;  relative  dedine,  330. 
Fitch,  John.  149-50. 
Flax.  49,  60,  65,  94,  196,  258,  316. 
Florida,  9,  21,  231,  312. 
Forestry  service,  398-400. 
Forests,  waste  of,  378-81 ;  reforesta- 
tion, 3g9-400. 
France:   colonies  in  .Xmerica.  10,  12, 
13,  .'o,  77  ;  commercial  treaty  with 
the  U.  S..  138-40. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  98,  108.  138. 
Free  Soil  party.  278,  294. 
Freedman's  Bureau,  308. 
Fremont.  J.  C.  247.  279. 
Fruits:    culture.  50.  S.«.  54.  59.  61, 

237,  312  ;  duties  t)n.  78,  99,  319- 
Frye,  William  P.,  sii,  .MS- 
Fur  trade:    colonial,  12,  18,  20,  29, 
51,  53,  61.  <)4,  76-7;    farther  de- 
velopment in  the  West,  124.  246, 
247- 

Gage,  Lyman,  341. 

Gallatin,  Albert:  on  importance  of 
national  bank,  156;  report  on 
manufactures,  188-0;  free  trade 
memorial.  197;  plan  for  internal 
improvements.  I'm.  i2Q. 

(leorgia,  i6,  31,  .)8.  45.  101,  121,  122, 
18,3. 

Gilbert,  Raleuh.  it. 

Gilbert.  Sir  Humphrev',  14- 

Glass,  20,  90.  143.  256.  287,  3«6. 

Gold;  discoveries;  Hispaniola,  8, 
southern  .Xppalachians,  228,  Cali- 
fornia, 24s,  Nevada.  280-00, 
Alaska.  341 :  coinage,  legislation 
of  //y-',  154,  of  18 i4.  2  2,S.  of  U)oi\ 
340.  supply,  154.  -85.  289.  290, 
3«5.  ,U5.  336-7.  341;  exhaustion 
oi,  360. 


456 


Index 


I  .,■ 


■I 


..  1- 

11 


Gold  Coast,  1 8,  44,  78,  lao. 

Gomez,  9. 

Gorges,  Sir  Fernando,  j8,  29,  40. 

Gorges,  Robert,  40. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  15. 

Gould  railway  system,  351. 

Government  debt:  Revolutionary 
War,  111;   Civil  War,  285. 

Grange  Movement,  307. 

Gray,  Captain  Robert,  171. 

Great  Bridge,  74- 

Great  Britain:  colonial  policy; 
claims  to  the  New  World,  13,  14, 
IS,  character  of  plantations,  14,  16, 
conquest  of  Dutch  and  Swedish 
colonies,  ig,  encourages  agricul- 
ture, 62,  discourages  manufac- 
tures, 63,  66,  68,  72-3,  restricts 
colonial  trade,  79,  82-5,  levies 
revenue  duties,  92,  94,  9S-6,  at- 
tempts to  vindicate  imperial  au- 
thority, 98-9 ;  commercial  relations 
with  the  U.  S.,  114-5,  139.  i75-9. 
18^-91,  256. 

Great  Deed  of  Grant,  38. 

Great  Northern  Railroad,  349,  350. 

Great  Southern  Railway,  225. 

Great  Valley  of  Virginia,  58,  S9.  i^i- 

Greeley,  Horace,  277,  294. 

Greenbacks,  285;  depreciation,  285; 
redemption,   286,  suspended,  286. 

Grenville,  Lord,  90,  95. 

Griscom,  C.  A.,  m,. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  14,  22,  23. 
Hamilton,    Alexander:     report    on 

manufactures,     146-8;      currency 

recommendations,  154-6. 
Harriman,  E.  H.,  34Q.  3SO- 
Harriman  railway  system,  350. 
Hat  manufacture,  68,  143,  189,  190- 
Hawaiian  Islands,  328,  330,  331. 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  13,  22. 
Hazar  1,  Rowland,  187. 
Head  right,  a,  38. 
Health,  National  Department  of,  393 
Hemp,  ^o,  62,  94,  130,  162,  194,  lofi, 

256,  257.  316. 
Hides.  46,  49.  67,  68,  83,  130.   >46, 

316,  3J9. 
Hill,  J.  J.,  350. 
Holland,  17,  18,  19. 


Homestead  Law:  unsuccessful  bill, 
294-7;  Act  of  1862,  296-7;  in- 
fluence on  speculation,  303. 

Howe,  Elias,  260. 

Hudson,  Henry,  18. 

Hudson  River,  5,  15,  18,  76,  208. 

Hussey,  Obed,  261. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  250. 

Immigration :  statistics,  i840-'6o, 
232-3,  iS6o-yo,  296-7,  1870-1905, 
368-70 ;  industrial  efficiency,  292, 
370;  attracted  by  public  lands, 
296-7  ;  change  in  character,  368-9 ; 
distribution,  369;  Chinese,  300, 
362,370.372.373;  German,  19,  54, 
157,  234.  292.  369;  Irish,  43.  59. 
«57.  234,  292,  300,  369;  Italian, 
10,  369;  Japanese,  374;  Scandi- 
navian, 292,  369 ;  restris-tive  legis- 
lation, 371. 

Import  duties,  colonial,  82-3,  84,  90, 
92,  94,  99,  loi.  (See  tariff  legis- 
lation.) 

Imports:  colonial,  65,  77,  79,  82-3, 
94,  96,  100,  103;  statistics,  loi, 
104,  141,  189-90,  208,  258-9,  283, 
320-1 ;   charts,  loi,  257,  302,  329- 

Impressment  of  American  seamen, 
I7S-6,  179.  181. 

Indentured  servants:  terms  of  con- 
tract, 42,  43,  44;  advantages  of 
system,  44,  43.  46.  54.  57- 

Indians,  7,  8,  18,  20,  40.  41.  SL  53.  S6, 
72,   76-7.    123.    125-7,   158. 

Indigo,  61,  63,  82,  115,  118,  144,  197- 

Injunction,  366. 

Inland  Waterways  Commission,  407. 

Inman  Line,  332,  m. 

Internal  improvements,  166,  167-8, 
169-70,  208,  216-25,  298-300. 

Internal  revenue  taxes,  284,  287,  288, 

313,  318. 
International      Mercantile      Marine 

Company,  333-4- 
Interstate   Commerce  Commission, 

353-4- 
Interstate  commerce  law,  353- 
Iron:   colonial,  7,  23,  26,  69-72,  73, 
83;   new  resources,  iS8,  241,  289, 
312:  development  of  manufactures, 
IiO-i»,  187-8,  320;  protective  leg- 


^m. 


Index 


457 


islation,  143,  igo,  iqi.  i95>  196, 
256.  258,  287,  293.  314.  316,  318, 
320 ;  exportation  of,  328 ;  exhaus- 
tion, 384. 
Irrigation,  210-11,  246,  248,  355,  401, 
403,  405-7- 

Jackson,  Andrew,  229,  277. 

Jamestown,  15,  25,  71. 

Jay,  John  :  seeks  loan  in  Spain,  to8 ; 
on  continental  currency,  no;  on 
commerce,  113;  negotiates  treaty 
with  Great  Britain,  139. 

Jefferson,  Thomas :  on  Southern  cot- 
ton manufactures,  118,  119;  agi- 
tates abolition  of  feudal  land 
tenure,  119;  on  slave  trade,  122; 
authorizes  exploration  of  Louisiana 
Territory,  171;  recommends  Em- 
bargo, 177;  on  slavery,  269;  in- 
fluence of  doctrines,  274. 

Jenks,  Joseph,  70. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  295. 

Joliet,  II. 

Kentucky,  123-6,  127, 157, 162,  201, 

20s,  230-r. 
King,  Butler,  265. 
Knight,  Madame,  47,  74. 
Knights  of  Labor,  361-2. 

Labor :  colonial,  a,  41-5 ;  slave  m. 
free,  211,  234,  240,  272-4,  278; 
orf^anization,  276-7,  278,  304-6, 
361-2,  366;  protective  legislation, 
305-6,  360,  390-1 ;  bureaus  of 
statistics,  305-6,  361-2;  contract 
labor,  361,  371 ;  convict  labor,  361 ; 
of  women  and  children,  390. 

Laconia  Grant,  29. 

Land  tenure,  25,  27,  28,  32-3,  33-5, 
35-6,  36-7,  38,  54.  57.  59.  60,  61, 
tig,  128. 

La  Salle,  12. 

La  V(?rendrye,  12. 

Law  Line,  265. 

Leather  manufacture,  67-8,  77,  131, 
144,  189,  241,  256,  260. 

Leland  Line,  333. 

Leonard  Brothers,  70. 

Lewis  (Meriwether)  and  Clark  (Wil- 
liam), 12, 172. 


Liberty  party,  278. 

Livingston  Manor,  36. 

Locofoco  pMuty,  277. 

London  Company,  23,  24,  »6,  32,  39, 

41,  42. 
Long  hunters,  127,  156-7. 
Louisiana,  193,  194,  312,  317. 
Louisiana  Territory,  12,  170-1,  172, 

382. 
Lowell,  Francis  C,  185,  192. 

Madison,  James,  139,  270. 
Magellan,  Ferdinand,  2,  9. 
Manufactory,  American,  118. 
Manufactory  House,  117. 
Manufactures :  colonial,  63-73, 96-7 ; 

national  development,  116-8,  140- 

I,  184-Q,  190-1,  -oo,  207,  208,  239- 

40,    2go-2,    301,    31S,    320,    340; 

Southern,   240-1,   311-12;    textile 

machinery,   152-3,   260-1 ;    cotton 

manufactures,   184-6,  258-g,  328; 

woolen  manufactures,  186-7;  iron, 

187-8 ;  Hamilton's  report,   146-8 ; 

Gallatin's  report,  188-g;    Dallas's 

report,  191-2. 
Marcos,  Fray,  9. 
Maryland,    29,    loi,   119,   189,    250, 

270. 
Mason,  John,  29. 
Massachusetts,    115,    122,   189,   195, 

a49.  250,  305- 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  27,  28, 

35.  63,  64,  65,  66,  68,  70,  73,  74, 

76-7,  82,  83,  84,  8s,  86,  87,  88,  105. 
McCormick,  Cyrus  H.,  261. 
McKinley,  William,  316,  319,  340. 
McKinley  Act,  315.  3»6-7,  318-20. 
Meats,  dressed,  50,  77,  92,  94,  114, 

328;    concentration   of  industry, 

355- 
Merino  Society  of  the  Middle  States, 

186. 
Miami  Company,  160,  162,  165. 
Michigan  Central  Railroad,  225,  249, 

267,  350. 
Milan  Decree,  177,  179. 
Mines,  Bureau  of,  391-2. 
Mississippi    River,   6,    12,   115,    139, 

166-7,  171. 
Mississippi  Valley,   20,  171,  201,  215- 

6,  21 8. 


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Index 


Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  250.  35 1- 
Mohawk  VaUey,  7.  Sf,  ^it^.  2>7.  223- 
Molasses,  78  83,  84-5.  92-3.  W-  '04. 

146,   189,   193.   i9<>.   256- 
Molasses  Act,  84-5- 
Morgan,  J.  P..  333.  349.  3SO. 
Mormons,  iif>- 
Morton,  Thomas,  40- 
Mutiny  Act,  99- 


Nails,  71.  M3.  i8«. 

Narvaez,  9. 

National  Labor  Union,  305. 

Naval  stores,  23,  26,  60,  61,  04.  «o 

81,83,  IIS.  137. 139. 328 

Navisation  Acts:    British,  81,   iM 

American,  133-S.  i37- 
NeKTo:    as  laborer,  308-9,  3H  ;    ;w  , 

peasant  farmer,  370- 
Ncmacolin's  path,  123.  lO?- 

Newell,  F.  11.,  407. 

New  England,  is.  20,  335.  3''.  SO.  S'. 
5;,  6s,  67,  08,  70-J.  74.  77.  78,  82. 
84.  100,  120  I,  122,  143.  14s.  •9S. 
1Q7-8,  241),  3«4-  . 

New  Ensland  Association  of  Farm- 
ers, Mechanics,  and  other  Work- 
insmen,  276- 

New  Hampshire,  35.  80,  87. 

New  Harmony,  27s- 

New  Jersey,  30,  37.  44.  54.  7i.  «'S. 

118,  359- 
New  Orleans.  12,  166,  208,  212.  230. 

Newport,  76.  78- 

Newport,  Captain,  2s,  2<>,  39 

New  York  Central  Railroad,  223.  3SO. 

New  York  City,  18,  117,  208.  230. 

267.  27h,  },o?,.  3«4- 
New  York,  colony  and  stiitf.  30.  ^". 
S3.  70-1,  82,  86,  95.  o<'.  '<»•  ""• 
12:,  189.  »93.  198.  248 
Nicollet,  II. 

Nonintercourse,  96-7.  >«>.  '"9. 
North,   The.    122.    208.    243, 

274-9-  .    .,       , 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  .»03 

350. 
Northern  Securities  Company 

Northwest  Passage.  4.  O-  »o.  "» 
Northwest  Territory,  I57.  «'8,  tbo- 

i.  313-4' 


Ocean  Steamship  Line,  265. 

Oceanic  Steamship  Company,  332. 

OKltthonx',  16,  31 

Ohio  Company,  160,  162. 

Ohio  River,  12,    123-4.    165-6,    i»». 

212-3- 

Olmsted  F.  L.,  273-4 
Orders  in  Council,  114.  176,  189. 
Ordinance  of  1787.  157-62. 
Oregon,  246,  247-H,  3.iO. 
Oregon  Trail,  247- 
Owen,  Robert,  275- 


M), 


:!»3- 
.'07, 

349. 

350, 


PaiificMail  Steamship  Line.  204-5. 

Tanama,  Isthmus  of,  4.  0,  21. 

Panama  Canal,  394-5 

I'aixr  11  anufactures.  143.  189,  256. 

Fasturagc,  381-3.  399- 

Patent  law,  148. 

Patrons  of  Industry,  307. 

Patroons,  18. 

Pcnn,  William,  3«.  36. 
'  Pennsvlvania,  30,  31.  36.  44.  54 
!       82,  Vi.  ico-i,  iiO,  12-'.   143.  i»». 
!       189,  217-8,  248-0. 

Pennsylvania  railroad    s>stcm.   349. 

I       35'.  301. 

1  Petroleum.  20&  1 

i  Philadelphia,   31.  9''.   118,   M-!.   M3. 

230. 
,  Philippine  Islands,  4.  330- 

Phosphate.  38O- 

Picketing.  3'i5- 

Piedmont  District,  17,  s8-9.  62,  100, 

tos.  146- 

I*ikc.  7..  M  .  17-' 

I'ilkTim  Fathtrs.  27.  39- 

Pirn  hot.  (.iffnrd.  407- 

Pineda.  0. 
'  Pine-tree  ^hillincs.  4'' 
;  Pitt.  William.  02.  o<«.  07-  "9-  '03- 

Plate  Class  Combination,  358. 

Platte  River.  10,  246. 

Plymouth  Colony,  is.  27.  35-6.  ;v 

Plymouth  Company.  24.  26,  27 

Ponce  de  I«eon,  9- 

Pony  Express.  252- 

Poor  whites,  236,  309.  31' 

Popham.  Cieorge,  26. 

Pophun,  '.ord  John,  20. 
|'i.l.ulatloii      statistics,    i'.. 


14- 


Index 


459 


126,  163,  232-6,  214,  247-8,  292, 

297,  36»-<);    charts,  55,  136.  232, 

233.  234.  23s.  -iSi,  36g. 
Port  Royal,  10,  22. 
Porter,  Peter  Buell,  21O. 
Porto  Rico,  330. 
Power  loom,  185. 
Preemption  act,  165. 
Price  conventions,  112,  283- 
Prices,  46-7,  111-2,  166,  201,  230-1, 

282-3,  284-s,  318,  320-1;    chart, 

364- 
Prindpio  Iron  Works,  72,  116.  1 

Privateering,    89,    105,    113.    13^-7, 

138-40,  180. 
Proprietary  colonies,  28-31,  36-8. 
Providence  Plantations,  28. 
Public  lands,  122, 157-62, 164-S,  200, 

203,  220-1,  214,  250,  278.  294-7, 

302-3,   355.   402,   407-10;    chart. 

302. 
Pure  Food  Law,  392-3. 

Quarantine  regulations,  392. 
Quitrents,  35,  36,  37.  38,  119 

Railroads:  construction,  222-5,  248 
9.  297-301,  340,  347-52,  chart,  302  ; 
combination,  348-5 1 ;  government 
control,  250-1,  300,  307,  352-4; 
government  aid,  250-1,  299-300; 
sUtistics,  24^51,  347.  348;  specu- 
lation, 301-2,  348;  freight  rates, 
250,  347 ;  charters,  352. 

Railroad  lands,  250,  299.  300. 

Ralegh,  Sir  Walter,  14.  1 5.  28. 

Randolph,  John,  270. 

Raw  material?.  62-3.  ^*,^  78-9,  83. 
94.  241,  256,  258,  313,  316-7.  3«8. 
328,  357-8- 

Reclamation  Art.  403. 

Rennslaervyrk,  >f^- 

Rhode  Island,  35-  7©.  86,  87,  06.  116, 
194. 

Ribault,  Jean,  22. 

Rice,  37.  46,  60,  80,  83,  94,  I  «9.  238, 

3". 
Richmond    and    Danville    Railroad, 

347.  349 
Roads,  wagon,   73,    74.    76,    168-9, 

203,  216-7,  248. 
Robertion,  John,  1 20. 


Roosevelt,  Theodore,  392,  407,  408, 

410,  412. 
Royal  African  Company,  44,  78,  119. 
Rum,  a,  76,  77,  78,  84,  92,  137.  146, 

193,  197 

Sagadahoc,  26. 

St.  Lawrence  River,  5,  6,  10,  22,  53, 

89,  166. 
St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  Manitoba 

Railroad,  351. 
Salem,  15,  35,  84.  137,  262. 
Salt,  29,  SI.  80.  83,  117.  >3i.  145. 192- 
i       3,  197,  256.  287.  288,  357. 
I  Salt  Lake  Trail.  2.)6.  252,  299- 
j  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  226. 

Scholtield  Brothers.  187,  190. 
I  Screw  propeller,  226. 
I  Sewing  machine.  2()0-i,  328. 
\  Sheep,  399.     See  Wool. 
j  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act,  360. 
j  Sherman  SUver  Act,  337,  339. 
■  Shipbuilding :  colonial,  50,  62, 81,  82 ; 
foreign  sales,  262-3,  293  ;  duties  on 
I       raw  materials,  145,  196,  260,  293 ; 
steamships,    149,    2«3.    225,    226, 
204-6. 
Shipping:     tonnage    statistics,    134. 
135,  179,  181,  262,  29;    294,  330-1  : 
j       reciprocity,  181-3;   n  peal  of  Brit 
ish  Navigation  Acts.  263  ;  effects  of 
war,  of  tHi2,  179-80.  of  Crimean, 
264,  of  Ci%-il,  292-4 :   transatlantic 
packet  lines.  182;  Yankee  clippers, 
263  ;  competition  of  English  steam- 
ers, 263-4 ;  decline  of.  331 ;  charts, 
257,  329 
Silver;   supply,  7,  9,  22,  46,  93.  «S4, 
289,  290.  335-9;  legislation.  154-6. 
228,  335-9 ;  value  in  gold,  154,  202. 
336,  338,  339;    agitation  for  frir 
coinage.  335.  33''.  337  9:   roinagi'. 
335,  33"  7.  339;    exhaustion.  3S('. 
Slater,  Samuel,  152-3- 
Slavery :  colonial,  18,  43-5,  54,  57,  59. 
60,61-2,69,78;  agitation  against. 
ti9-22,  133,  t6o,  162,  260-71.  278- 
9;    industrial  efficiency  of  slaves, 
210-11,     236,    240,    248.     272  4; 
statistics,   210,   211,   214- 
Smith.  Captain  John,  20.  25,  39- 
Smith,  Joseph,  151,  '87- 


;'},v. 


460 


Index 


\\  \  '-x  ,- 


I  t    if!  ' 


i  '! 


! : 


ii 


Smuggling,  83-4,  85,  167,  2ii- 
Soils,  so,  S3.  54.  60,  61,  128,  130,  164. 

210,  246,  262,  3g7. 
South,  The,  68,  82,   100,   118,   119. 

150-1,  183,  186,  194.  196-7.  198, 

221,  228,  233,  234,  23s.  236,  237. 

238,   241-2,  26s,   279-80,  307-11. 

333- 
South  Carolina  Railroad,  223. 

Southern  Railway,  349.  3S2- 

South  Sea,  4. 

Southwest  Territory,  162,  164. 

Spm,  8-9,  20,  21,  138-9- 

Spinning  mule,    152-3,    240-1,    259, 

311- 
Spotswood,  Governor,  59.  72- 

Stamp  Act,  95.  96,  97-8. 

Standard  Oil  Company,  291,  35S. 
357,  3S9.  360. 

Standish,  Miles,  27,  4O; 

State  railway  commissions,  3S2-3- 

Steel,  116,  142,  289,  314.  3i6,  318, 
320,  329.  3A0.  _    . 

Strikes:  Amalgamated  Association 
of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  358; 
United  Mine  Workers,  358;  Mis- 
souri Pacific,  362;  Pullman,  366; 
statistics,  363-4;  sympathetic,  366. 

Subsidies,  steamships:  ante-bellum, 
264-6 ;  Postal  Aid  Law,  331 ;  Fr>'e, 
Subady  Bill,  332- 

Sugar,  78,  83,  84,  92,  93.  104.   131. 

193.  256,  317.  318.  320,  397- 
Sugar  Act,  92,  93.  94.  99- 
Swamp  lands,  404-5. 
Sweden:    settlements,  19;    commer- 
cial treaty  with  United  States,  138. 
Symmes,  J.  C,  160,  165. 


Tariff  Legislation:  a  Federal  func- 
tion, 116, 132-3  ;  acts  of  /7.?(?,  142- 
6,  17Q2,  17OS,  148,  1S12,  179.  '*"*• 
191-3.  tlf^A.  194-5.  '*'*■  «95-6, 
1X32,  197.  '■^.?.?.  197.  254-5.  tff4i' 
254-5.  if^4f>,  25^8,  1817,  258, 
mt,  283-4.  '862,  287,  tS64.  287, 
1872,  187.1.  288.  1 88 J,  313-4.  '•'fO". 
316-7,  1804.  318-0.  1807.  .U9-JO. 
1000,  322-7;  reports  of  Hamilton, 
146-8,  of  Dallas.  191.  of  Walker, 
255-6;  of  Commission  of  1882, 
313-4,  of  Cleveland,  353 


Taxes:  Federal,  107, 108, 132,  283-4, 

286,287-8,313.318;  Confederate, 

280. 
Tea,  99,  102,  103,  13s.  137.  256,  283, 

288,  317. 
Telegraph,  251-2. 
Tennessee,  127,  157- 
Texas,  21,  239,  312 
Textile  machinery,  152-3.  260-1. 
Timber,  16,  23.  26,  29  ^o,  53.  54.  <». 

61,  62,  77,  78,  83,  92,  137.  294.  318, 

319;  exhaustion,  378-81. 
Timber  Culture  Act,  098. 
Tin  Plate  Combination,  320,  357. 
Tobacco,  20,  37.  47.  s6-8.  61,  77,  79, 

83,  84,  119.  130,  157,  162,  189,  197, 
238,  256,  316,  318,  328. 
Townshend,  Charles,  90,  99. 
Townshend  Act,  99,  102. 
Treasury,    National:     surplus,    221, 
231,   258,  316;    deficit,   231.   283. 

318. 

Treaties:  boundary,  36,  180,  248; 
commercial,  138-40,  i75;  reci- 
procity, 181-3,  317. 

Trusts:  development,  317,  320,  355. 
357,  358-9;  legislation,  359-60. 

Union  label,  367- 

Union    Pacific    Railway,    297-301, 

348-9. 
Union  shop,  366-7. 
United  Mine  Workers  of  Amenca, 

358. 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,  358, 

391.  409. 
Utah,  246. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  277,  279. 
Vanderbilt  railway  system,  3S0-«- 
Verrazano,  10,  22. 
Virginia,  15.  32-3.  42-3.  s6-9.  62,  72, 

76,  82,  101,  103,  119.  120,  123,  128, 

189,  191.  269-70. 

Wages:  41,  40.  53.  I4i.  t6s.  255.  263, 

267,   304.    308-9.   314.   318.    361; 

chart,  364. 
Walker,  R.  J.:   annual  report,  184s, 

25s;   Walker  Tariff,  256;   annual 

report,  1846,  256,  257. 
Wampum.  47 


Index 


461 


Ward  Line,  33*. 

Washington,  George,  122;  on  west- 
ern speculation,  157;  on  need  of 
communication  with  West,  167-8; 
on  slavery,  269;  on  need  of  agri- 
cultural department,  395. 

Washington,  state  of,  248. 

Waste :  of  natural  resources,  375-86 ; 
of  human  life,  386-8;  utilization 
of,  in  manufacture,  388-9. 

Watauga  Colony,  59,  126,  127. 

Water  power,  410-12. 

Water  scrip  agreement,  412. 

Wealth  statistics,  232,  292,  354-5. 

West  India  Company,  18,  36,  44. 

Weston,  Thomas,  40. 

Westward  route,  214. 

Whale  fisheries,  51,  52.  S3i  64,  78,  83, 
94.  "S- 

Wheat,  47.  %i^  54.  61,  77.  78,  94.  256, 


314.  31S,  3t6,  318,  328,  340.  383-4. 

395- 
Whiskey  Trust,  358,  359- 
White,  John,  41. 
Whitman,  Marcus,  246-7. 
Whitney,  Asa,  297-8. 
Whitney,  Eli,  150. 
Wildcat  banks,  198,  201. 
Wilderness  Road,  126. 
Wilson  Act,  318-9. 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  70. 
Wool,  49,  54,  59,  65,  68,  79,  80,  97. 

117,  1S6-7,  189-QO,  IQS,  196,  197,_ 

256,  258,  287,  316,  318,  ^\f). 
Woolen  manufactures,  65-6,  77,  78, 

80,  117,  131,  186-7,  189,  191,  192, 

194,  19s,  196,  246,  256,  257,  258, 

260,  287,  314,  316,  318. 
Workingmen's  Party,  276,  305,  361. 
Wyeth,  Nathaniel  J.,  246. 


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1 1  •-vi' 


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ii 


An  Introduction  to  the  Social 


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By  EDWARD  P.  CHEYNEY 

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Cloth     8vo     493  pages     $i.go  net 


The  book  discusses  the  whole  subject  of  prosperity  of  the  factors 
which  enter  into  the  complex  economic  life  of  the  nation.  A  young 
man  who  wishes  to  read  even  the  daily  paper  with  full  intelligence 
would  find  time  spent  in  reading  this  book  well  employed  for  the  help 
which  it  would  give  him  in  understanding  current  discussions  of  such 
topics  as  the  standard  of  living ;  the  natural  resources  of  the  country 
and  their  conservation ;  the  relations  of  labor  and  immigration  ;  of  the 
labor  of  women  and  children  to  industrial  progress ;  of  organization  in 
business  and  its  tendencies ;  of  the  growth  and  functions  of  large  cor- 
porations ;  of  public  ownership ;  of  the  various  experiments  which 
have  been  tried  at  different  times,  or  the  programmes  which  social 
leaders  are  now  proposing  for  the  remedy  or  the  prevention  of  economic 
injustice. 

Questions  are  listed  at  the  end  of  each  chapter  and  aid  the  reader  in 
the  application  of  the  preceding  discussion  to  current  affairs.  The 
whole  tone  of  the  book  is  stimulatiug  and  practical. 


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An  Introduction  to  Public  Finance 

By  carl  C.   PLEHN,  Ph.D. 
Third  Edition    Enlarged  and  partiy  rewritten     $1.75  net 

"  The  book  as  it  first  appeared  was  an  excellent  one ;  in  the  present 
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Political  Economy.  "At  present  the  best  text  on  public  finance  for 
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Educational  and  Industrial  Evolution 

By  frank  T.  CARLTON,  Ph.D. 
Professor  of  Economics  and  History  in  Albion  College 

Citizen's  Library      Cloth,  leather  back     $1.25  net;   by  mail,  $1.36 

A  discussion  of  industrial  progress,  of  the  need  of  industrial  training 
among  the  working  classes,  and  of  its  importance  in  any  broad  scheme 
of  general  education. 

Outlines  of  English  Industrial  History 

By  W.  CUNNINGHAM  and  E.  A.  McARTHUR 
Cloth     8vo     $1.50  net 

A  standard  text  by  a  well-known  authority,  author  of  the  larger  work 
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